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THE PHILOSOPHY 



OP 



THE HUMAN VOICE: 

EMBRACING ITS 

PHYSIOLOGICAL HISTORY; 

TOGETHER WITH A 

SYSTEM OF PRINCIPLES, 

BY WHICH 

CRITICISM IN THE ART OF ELOCUTION 

MAY BE RENDERED INTELIGIBLE, 



INSTRUCTION, DEFINITE AND COMPREHENSIVE. 



TO WHICH IS ADDED 



A BRIEF ANALYSIS 



SONG AND RECITATIVE. 



BY JAMES RUSH, M.D. 

AUTHOR OF A ' NATURAL HISTORY OF THE INTELECT,' AND OF ' HAMLET, 
A DRAMATIC PRELUDE IN FIVE ACTS.' 



SEVENTH EDITION, REVISED. 



^9 ^Jj 



PHILADELPHIA: -:V/' 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. 

1879. 



£ 






Copyright, 1879, by The Library Company of Philadelphia. 



i> i fc> 



CONTENTS. 



>* 



INTRODUCTION, 
SECTION I. 

II. 



III. 



Page. 
45 



IV. 



VI. 
VII. 

VIII. 



IX. 

X. 

XI. 

XII. 

XIII. 

XIV. 

XV. 

XVI. 

XVII. 

XVIII. 



Of the General Divisions of Vocal Sound, with 

a more particular acount of its Pitch, 
Of the Radical and Vanishing movement ; and 

its diferent forms in Speech, Song, and Reci- 
tative, 
Of the Elementary Sounds of the English 

Language ; with their relations to the Radi- 
cal and Vanish, 
Of the Influence of the Radical and Vanish, 

in the production of the various phenomena 

of Sylables, 
Of the Causative Mechanism of the Voice, in 

relation to its diferent Vocalities and to its 

Pitch, 
Of the Expresion of Speech, 
Of the Pitch of the Voice, 
Of the Melody of Speech ; with an inquiry 

how far the terms Key and Modulation are 

aplicable to it, 
Of Vocality of the Voice, 
Of Abruptness of Speech, 
Of the Time of the Voice, 
Of the Intonation at Pauses, 
Of the Grouping of Speech, 
Of the Interval of the Rising Octave, 
Of the Interval of the Rising Fifth, 
Of the Interval of the Rising Third, 
Of the Intonation of Interogative Sentences, 
Of the Interval of the Rising Second, 

(iii) 



69 



101 



115 



128 
156 
169 



174 

192 
194 
196 
220 
229 
239 
241 
243 
245 
278 



IV 



CONTENTS. 



SECTION XIX. 





of the Chromatic Melody founded thereon, 


282 


XX. 


Of the Downward Eadical and Vanish, 


295 


XXI. 


Of the Downward Octave, 


299 


XXII. 


Of the Downward Fifth, 


301 


XXIII. 


Of the Downward Third, 


303 


XX1Y. 


Of the Downward Second and Semitone, 


307 


XXV. 


Of the Wave of the Voice, 


309 


XXVI. 


Of the Equal- Wave of the Octave, 


315 


XXVII. 


Of the Equal- Wave of the Fifth, 


316 


XXVIII. 


Of the Equal- Wave of the Third, 


317 


XXIX. . 


Of the Equal-Wave of the Second, 


318 


XXX. 


Of the Equal- Wave of the Semitone, 


328 


XXXI. 


Of the Wave of Unequal Intervals, 


330 


XXXII. 


Of the Intonation of Exclamatory Sentences, 


340 


XXXIII. 


Of the Tremor of the Voice, 


354 


XXXIV. 


Of Force of Voice, 


364 


XXXV. 


Of the Eadical Stress, 


366 


XXXVI. 


Of the Median Stress, 


371 


XXXVII. 


Of the Vanishing Stress, 


375 


XXXVIII 


. Of the Compound Stress, 


377 


XXXIX. 


Of the Thoro Stress, 


378 


XL. 


Of the Loud Concrete, 


381 


XLI. 


Of the Time of the Concrete, 


" 382 


XLII. 


Of the Aspiration, 


383 


XLIII. 


Of the Emphatic Vocule, 


387 


XLIV. 


Of the Gutural Vibration, 


389 


XLV. 


Of Acent, 


390 


XLVI. 


Of Emphasis, 


395 




Of Emphasis of Vocality, 


396 




Of Emphasis of Force, 


397 




Of the Eadical Emphasis, 


398 




Of the Median Emphasis, 


399 




Of the Vanishing Emphasis, 


400 




Of the Compound Emphasis, 


401 




Of the Emphasis of the Thoro Stress, and the 






Loud Concrete, 


402 




Of the Aspirated Emphasis, 


403 




Of the Emphatic Vocule, 


404 



CONTENTS. V 

SECTION XLYI. Of the Gutural Emphasis, 405 

Of the Temporal Emphasis, ib. 

Of the Emphasis of Pitch, 407 

Of the Emphasis of the Eising Octave, 409 

Of the Emphasis of the Eising Eifth, 411 

Of the Emphasis of the Eising Third, 412 

Of the Emphasis of the Kising Semitone, 413 

Of the Downward Concrete, 415 

Of the Downward Octave, 417 

Of the Downward Eifth, 419 

Of the Downward Third, 420 

Of the Emphasis of the Wave, 422 
Of the Equal-Single-Direct Wave of the Octave, 423 
Of the Equal-Single-Direct Wave of the Fifth, 425 

Of the Unequal-Single Wave, 426 

Of the Emphasis of the Tremor, 428 

A Recapitulating Yiew of Emphasis, 430 

XLVII. Of the Drift of the Voice, 437 

Of the Diatonic Drift, 438 

Of the Drift of the Semitone, 439 

Of the Drift of the Downward Vanish, ib. 

Of the Drift of the Wave of the Second, ib. 

Of the Drift of the Wave of the Semitone, ib. 

Of the Drift of Quantity, 440 

Of the Drift of Force, ib. 

Of the Drift of the Loud Concrete, ib. 

Of the Drift of Median Stress, ib. 

The Partial Drift of the Tremor, ib. 

The Partial Drift of Aspiration, 441 

The Partial Drift of Gutural Vibration, ib. 

The Partial Drift of Interogation, ib. 

The Partial Drift of the Phrases of Melody, ib. 

XLVIII. Of the Vocal Signs of Thot and Pasion, 448 

Note. On the Voice of Sub-animals, 456 r 
Of Thot or Pasion indicated 

By the Piano of the Voice, 461 

By the Forte of the Voice, ib. 

By Quicknes of Voice, ib. 

By Slownes of Voice, 462 



VI 



CONTENTS. 



SECTION XLYIII. By Vocality of Voice, 

By the Kising and Faling Semitone, 

By the Eising and Faling Second, 

By the Kising Third, Fifth and Octave, 

By the Downward Third, Fifth and Octave, 

By the Wave of the Semitone, 

By the Wave of the Second, 

By the Waves of the Third, Fifth and Octave, 

By the Kadical Stress, 

By the Median Stress, 

By the Vanishing Stress, 

By the Compound Stress, 

By the Thoro Stress, 

By the Tremor of the Second, and Wider In- 
tervals, 

By the Tremor of the Semitone, 

By the Aspiration, 

By the Guttural Vibration, 

By the Emphatic Vocule, 

By the Broken Melody, 
XLIX. Of the Means of Instruction in Elocution, 
Of Practice on the Alphabetic Elements, 
Of Practice on the Time of Elements, 
Of Practice on the Vanishing Movement, 
Of Practice on Force, 
Of Practice on Stress, 
Of Practice on Pitch, 
Of Practice on Melody, 
Of Practice on the Cadence, 
Of Practice on the Tremor, 
Of Practice on Vocality, 
Of Practice in Rapidity of Speech, 
L. Of the Rythmus of Speech, 

LI. Of the Faults of Readers, 

Of the Faults in Vocality, 
Of Faults in Time, 
Of Faults in Force, 
Of Faults in Pitch, 
Of Faults in the Concrete Movement, 
Of Faults in the Semitone, 



ih 



462 

ib. 

ib. 
463 

ib. 

ib. 
464 

ib. 
465 

ib. 

ib. 
466 

ib. 



ib. 

ib. 

ib. 
467 

ib. 

ib. 
473 
483 
487 
488 
489 

ib. 
490 
492 

ib. 
493 

ib. 
495 
504 
517 
529 

ib. 
530 
533 

ib. 
534 



CONTENTS. Vll 

SECTION LI. Of Faults in the Second, 535 

Of Faults in the Melody of Speech, 536 

First Fault in Melody, ib. 

Second Fault in Melody, 537 

Third Fault in Melody, ib. 

Fourth Fault in Melody, 538 

Fifth Fault in Melody, 539 

Sixth Fault in Melody, ib. 

Seventh Fault in Melody, 540 

Of Faults in the Cadence, 543 

Of Faults in the Intonation at Pauses, 545 

Of Faults in the Third, 546 

Of Faults in the Fifth, ib. 

Of Faults in the Downward Movement, 547 

Of Faults in the Discrete Movement, ib. 

Of Faults in the Wave, ib. 

Of Faults in Drift, 549 

Of Faults in the Grouping of Speech, 552 

Of the Fault of Mimicry, 553 

Of Monotony of Voice, 556 

Of Banting in Speech, 557 

Of Afectation in Speech, ib. 

Of Mouthing in Speech, ib. 

Of the Faults of Stage-Personation, 561 

Conclusion, 576 

A Brief Analysis of Song and Eecitative, 585 

Of Song, 586 

Of Eecitative, 617 



TO THE READER. 



All the reprints of this "Work have sucesively receved aditions. The 
recorded analysis and principles of the First edition having been derived 
from exact observation and experiment, remain almost without alteration. 
The arangement has however been slightly changed. Three new sections^ 
severaly on Pitch, Abruptnes, and Exclamatory sentences, with other di- 
visions, have been added, in amplification of preceding views : and there will 
be found thruout the Work, aditional facts, principles, and ilustrations, to- 
gether with esthetic reflections on the subject of vocal Science and Art ; while 
variations without number have been made in the explanatory phraseology. 
It would have been both embarasing and useles to have marked the places of 
all the aditional facts, principles, divisions, and nomenclature. It is enuf, 
to state the amount. The several editions, without the prefaces, and deduct- 
ing the blank portions not comon to all, contain respectively in leters, esti- 
mated by pages and lines, about the folowing numbers : 

EDITIONS. CONTAINS ABOUT PUBLISHED. 

First 742,000 leters, January, 1827. 

Second 814,000 " June, 1833. 

Third 850,000 " December, 1844. 

Fourth 1,024,000 " January, 1855. 

Fifth 1,232,000 « May, 1859. 

Sixth 1,248,000 " April, 1867. 



The first writing of the Work ocupied about three years of leisure from 
Profesional and Social engagements. The subsequent aditions may alto- 
gether have employed about eighteen months. 



NOTICE 



IMPROVED SPELLING IN THIS WORK. 

To prevent surprise and misapprehension, on the subject of the 
unusual orthography in the present Edition, we here give a short ac- 
count of the purpose, the motives, and the manner of its application. 

As somebody first omitted the superfluous u from the English 
word labour, it is here the intention cautiously to remove the un- 
pronounced i, of several words similar to perceive, and to lessen 
the double consonants of the language. We are no more bound 
to respect an old literary habit of spelling, when advantage is to 
be gained, and only prejudice to be shocked by the change, than 
upon proof against it, to respect a conventional creed on any other 
subject. (Orthography has been variously altered for the worse, 
as well as for the better, by ' nobody knows who/ as if the inno- 
vator feared to be caught by the norma loquendi or fashionable rule 
of the pen. The little here offered is directed by the Grammar, 
which teaches to give the letters that make the sound of the word ; 
and we add, to give no more : following the classical Latin, w T hich 
gives much nearer than we do, letter for sound ; though it is yet 
too soon always to do this. We must except from our proposal of 
improvement, cases that would have a temporary awkwardness to 
the eye; and that from the deficiency of our vowel symbols, afford 
no habitual rule to direct the sound of a sylable. 

Nor have we been mindless of euphony, and therefore prefer 
the smooth and gliding quantity and sound of impune to the 
half hiccupy catch of impugn; have given the strong accent to 6r 
2 (ix) 



X NOTICE OF THE IMPROVED 

and grd in 6rthography, to avoid the like guttural og; and have 
changed the lip-issuing eu (yeu or ceu) to the free oral u y in ma- 
nuver. If it be said, these words are so pronounced: then write 
them so. Ours is the English language ; we have therefore, when 
justified by the ear and the eye, rejected or changed the consonant 
sylables, vre y tre, and que, of the French. Thus individually trying 
to do slowly in part, what the crowd of Reviews, Magazines, News- 
papers, and Governments, with their influence and patronage could, 
under a wise commission, accomplish by a broad and rapid sweep. 

To an observant and reflective Reformer, it would be as easy in 
principle and rule, to correct a false 6rthography, though as diffi- 
cult in practice, as to change a metaphysical and corrupt religion ; 
for it is only returning to Nature's ordination of sound and sign, 
in the former case, and in the latter, to the simplicity of humble 
submission to that physical superiority of God and Nature over 
the mind and conduct of man, which the reflective study of their 
works will always insure. But as the crowd of writers of what- 
ever class, and the vulgar may corrupt, yet never reform, the pro- 
posal and attempt are left for the adventurous individual who must 
take the fearful odds against him. 

Who, except a corrector of the Press, and a drilled memorial 
scholar, knows always, unhesitatingly how to spell? Nobody! 
This both with the studious and the ignorant arises, in the English 
language, from there being a deficiency of the vowel symbols, and 
a redundancy of consonants. It would then seem easy, to add a 
few to one, and to reduce the number of the other. This however, 
in opposition to scholastic usage, would be a hopeless task : for the 
self-relying personal power of the wonder-working Hercules has not 
reached our time : though we do not mean like Bishop Wilkins, and 
others, to offer a i Real Character/ or a newly invented alphabet of 
symbols : an attempt, however philosophic, as practically vain, as 
trying to change a man to a Seraph by feathering-out his arms into 
wings ; which the Satirist on the learned and ingenious Prelate's 
' Essay ' seemed to have thought, in his Fable of a flying humanity. 

The sixth Edition of this Work, besides other changes, shows a 
partial rejection of the double consonants. Here it is proposed to 
reject them all ; for they are almost universally unnecessary, es- 
pecially at the end of words, where even the self excusing pedant 



SPELLING IN THIS WORK. XI 

cannot find an apolog) r for applying them: and though they are 
sometimes improperly used to indicate the character of a preceding 
vowel ; this would be done more precisely, by increasing the num- 
ber of the vowel symbols, and denoting their proper time and sound. 
As an exception to the above general rule, I have not removed the 
redundant consonants from monosylables, and a few dissylables ; it 
would be at present awkward, and might draw attention and pro- 
voke opposition by its oddity; though a reader might in time 
become reconciled to the change w T hen others effect it. 

It is shown in the third section and elsewhere in this work, that 
the physiology of consonant sounds does not only prove the doub- 
ling to be unnecessary, but practically forbids it. All the conso- 
nants close their utterance either by a faint vocal or by an aspirate 
jet, a vocula, or little voice or v6cule as I have called it; more 
audible as an aspirate severally in the final h, p, and t, in nick, skip, 
and hate; and slightly, in what has been called, guttural murmur, 
at the close of all the vocal consonants. This v6cule is the means 
of the easy coalescence of the consonants with the vowels ; making 
all the consonants flow severally into them. Now vowels having 
no final vocule, two or more do not coalesce with each other; nor 
do double consonants, even with their v6cule, unite into one syla- 
ble ; therefore two proximate vowels, and two proximate conso- 
nants, if pronounced, must respectively make two sylabic efforts. 
And hence double consonants, within a sylable, cannot together, be 
uttered by a single vocal impulse. 

I have looked over the dictionary with reference to double con- 
sonants. At the end of a word and within a sylable, they are as 
above stated, useless to the voice. They appear however, double 
at the connection of successive sylables, as in the w^ord command. 
Are they necessary here? Only in some cases. In the greater 
number, the consonant at the end of the preceding sylable coalesces 
with the preceding vowel, and would coalesce with the vowel of 
the succeeding sylable, if the second consonant did not prevent it. 
In the hasty current of speech, and of declamation, the second m 
is not pronounced, and is therefore useless ; the final consonant of 
the preceding sylable skipping the second consonant, and gliding 
into the next vowel a. If the utterance is slow T , or the second 
sylable, as in commdnd is emphatic, then the a is to be strongly 



Xll NOTICE OF THE IMPROVED SPELLING IN THIS WORK. 

exploded ; and this is to be effected by making a momentary pause 
before the second m, and bursting by its vocule into the emphatic a; 
in which case the double consonant is used. Or this may be done 
by the same process with the first m; rejecting the second. Some 
sylables are altogether consonants, as ble, and fie, in bubble and 
shuffle; but these are no exception to the rule of the single conso- 
nant, at the junction of sylables, and of its gliding into the following 
vowel, for these and their similars are pronounced, bubel and shufel. 

I have omitted the silent guttural gh wherever it occurs, and 
propose to supply its place by the letters, au, o, u, ou or uf, as in 
thaut, tho, thru,plou, and enuf. The same gh is omitted as useless in 
might, right, sight, and that family of words ; e being added to mite, 
and the rest, to indicate the long sound of i. From would and its 
family I is rejected. So far as I have reduced these changes to prac- 
tice, they are easily legible by the literal sound. Thaut and caut, site 
and mite, wud and cud, while acceptable to the ear, will soon cease 
to shock the eye. The distinction between mite the auxiliary, and 
mite the noun, and mite the insect will at once be determined by the 
connection of the first with the verb, and the use of the last two in 
the nominative or objective case. And so of rite the adjective and 
of rite as a noun ; of site, vision, and of site, situation, where the 
grammatical construction will make the distinction obvious; and 
so of the rest not stated here ; upon all which, the facilities of one 
side may explain and justify the difficulties of the other. 

I leave the desperate case of the redundant and deficient vowels 
to some future Hercules, to use his club on the thousand forms of 
Antseus that will continue to rise against him. If this work 
would not at present be strangled in the attempt, it would propose 
and use a new and simple analogical type, for three of the form of 
a ; but we leave these and other reforms in spelling to futurity. 

What is here proposed and exemplified in part, will be sufficient 
to make the hair of the literary formalist and the reviewer stand 
on-end, at this havoc with their language. Let them calm their 
horror ; it will not tear it up by the roots, to prevent its lying 
down again, and covering the baldness of their superanuated error. 

The reform here offered will be acceptable to those who dare 
to use it. Others will stone the innovation as the metaphysical 
and stiffnecked Israelites served their unconforming Prophets. 



PREFACE 



SIXTH EDITION. 






After the publication of the l Natural History of the Intelect/ 
the Author was disposed to dilate the former Title-page of the 
present Work to what it was originaly intended to embrace-; the 
promise of a description of the voice, as the preparatory part of 
that ' History.'* The purpose of the History was in the mind of 
the Author j with only short memorandums of his penj for nearly 
half a century, interupted however, time after time by profesional, 
and by social engagements ; but finaly gathered, and reduced to a 
writen system, within the few last years of that period. Before it 
apeared in print, he declared to no one, either relative, or other 
asociate, the subject of his inquiry : thereby preventing all antici- 
pative or conjectural scientific, or literary gosip which might in a 
friendly maner, or otherwise have interfered with the quiet secrecy 
of his ocupation. He has however, for causes, left the title of the 
Philosophy of the Human Voice unchanged. 

To the observant Eeader of the two publications, any altera- 
tion is unecesary ; for he will find certain principles, remarks, and 
prospective views contained in the i Philosophy/ systematicaly un- 
folded in the ' History ; ' which if developed earlier, in the ' Phi- 
losophy/ would have been premature, not comprehended, or most 
probably unoticed ; but which must now show him the maner of a 

* For an acount of the purposes of the double coma here introduced, see a 
note on the first page of the Introduction. 

(xiii) 



XIV PREFACE TO THE SIXTH EDITION. 

direct conection between the functions of the mind and the voice. 
For it will be learned that the two Works are to be considered as 
the first and second parts of one great interwoven vocal and in- 
telectual subject: there being in the ' Philosophy of the Voice' 
constant reference to its mental aplication; and in the i History 
of the Intelect/ ocasional cals for knowledge of the thotive and 
expresive power of the voice. 

And here the Author adds to this Sixth Edition, a recordj how 
the ' Philosophy ' continues to be regarded by the ocupants of the 
eminent and influential places of instruction^ with orators, players, 
and other suitors to the ear of the public ; who finding they can 
suced, each to his own satisfaction, in his limited purposes of Elo- 
cutionj after the old fashion of learnings leave this Work to the 
patronage of those early instructors and improvers, who are thus 
laying the foundation for some lasting usefulnes and pleasure in 
science and in art. 



Philadelphia, November 27, 1866. 



PREFACE 



FIFTH EDITION. 



What lias been ofered in the several Prefaces to this Work, is 
to be taken as only a brief notice of the maner in which it has 
been regarded, within the period of thirty years from its publica- 
tion ; and is intended, rather for an ocasional inquirer of a future 
age, to whom it may be interesting, than for the present genera- 
tion, who, while indiferent to the Work itself, can have no curi- 
osity about its early progres and its subsequent fate. 

Having however, thru more sources than one, heard the remark, 
that its prefaces are looked upon as the only inteligible part of the 
Volume^ I have, to avoid driving even an unwiling intelect alto- 
gether away, retained them in their present places and not transfered 
them as I had intended, to an Apendix ; being further induced 
thereto, by the consideration, that with the record of its progres, 
which is the principal object, they contain ocasional reflections, in- 
timating a general view of its design. Still, if the future Reader 
should feel no interest in early opinions, either friendly or adverse 
to it, he may pas on to the Introduction ; which as a constituent 
part of the subject, regards what the Art of Speech has already 
acomplishedj and what is yet to be done in its purposes, both of 
Instruction, and Taste. But to continue the record. 

Since the date of the fourth edition, in eighteen hundred and 
fifty-five, those who hold a certain influence, in the higher depart- 
ments of learnings still true to the Mede-and-Persian normality 
of the Majesterial mind, which does not alow itself to alterj con- 

(XV) 



XVI PREFACE TO THE 

tinue to maintain, with here and there a rebelious exception, the 
same indiference to the Analysis ; with a sly, if not an open opo- 
sition to its creeping advancement : altho they might find in its 
pages, something they have pretended to be in search of. 

There is however another, tho humble class, for until our pur- 
poses and means are comprehended, we are obliged so to call our- 
selvesj who are still laboring with gradual succes to enlarge the 
number of scholars and advocates of the New Elocution, and who, 
in their unheeded exertions, are contented with this sarcastic reflec- 
tion on the lazy pride and unproductive favoritism of Scholastic 
Patronage^ There never was a wise or holy reformation, that the 
Lowly and Despised did not first assist the master of it. 

But in regarding their exertions, especialy thruout the Northern 
Statesj under the influence of Mr. William Russell, Principal of 
the Normal Institute at Lancaster, Massachusetts, and of his able 
Coadjutorsj in extending the work of widely reforming, if not 
founding anew the whole Art of Speech, without a single Judas to 
desert, for he could not betray them ; I was acidentaly told, that in 
an English Review, of high authority, and extended circulation, 
Some Body has, for the thirty pieces of silver, come along 
with the servants of the High Priests of the old elocution, to lay, 
and this is all I would hear, not only unmerciful hands on the 
' Philosophy of the Human Voices ' but unmerciful sneers on its 
Author : being in his hardy onset, safely asured, that none of our 
company would defensively think of cuting off an ear, from one so 
deaf to the sound of the speaking voice, as to furnish the verdict 
of his having already lost both of his dull, and as a i paid volun- 
teer ? in partizan-acoustics, his criminaly dull and worthies ears in 
some other way.* 

* If we were disposed to be sportfuly clasical, we might, from our presump- 
tuous Reviewer having the knack of so readily transmuting pen, ink, paper,' 
and ignorance, into payj have otherwise represented him as the ' ingenium 
pingue,' the gross-witted Midas; for whose audacious decision against the 
musical claims of Apolloj the indignant yet compromising God did not cut-off, 
but only closed his ears from music and speech, in providing for their sub- 
animal wants, by the apropriate gift of greater extension. 

Nee Delius aures 
Humanam stolidas patitur retinere flguram : 



FIFTH EDITION. XV11 

Besides, we profess to be only like peaceful and industrious 
bees, gathering from nature an abundant store for future use; 
yet wishing it to be remembered, that the busy colectors are, by 
some wise ordination, provided with the means of defense, under 
suficient provocation ; which means however, the quiet laborers of 
our litle hive have not yet had, and trust they may not have, cause 
to employ. 

In the second page of our Introduction, I early declared my 
resolution, neither to read, nor seriously to consider, any objec- 
tions against this Analysis and system, that are not the result of 
a scrutinizing comparison of its descriptions with the phenomena 
of nature herself: which is only stating in other words, a precept 
of Baconian science j that justifies us in disregarding every objec- 
tion to observations and experiments, not drawn from observa- 
tions and experiments, more extensive and exact ; for this method 
saves much il-conditioned and wasteful argument. Certainly then, 
if our mercenary asailant, in rejecting the facts on which we have 
endeavored to raise a ^Natural Science of speech, does not, with a 
more atentive ear, give us the facts by which he rejects themj he 
must look to his own self-inflicted mortification, if we neither read 
what he writes, nor take particular notice of any report upon it. 

While in England some years ago, a Publisher proposed to me, 
and ofered on his own partj notwithstanding school-book copy- 
right and other oposing influences of British Elocutionj to print 
a London edition of the New Analysis. But knowing from the 
sovereignty of Truth and Time, in their unfailing patronage of 
every deserving efort in science, that with wisdom in cause and 
consequence, they always bestow it in their own procrastinating 
way; and considering that certain contrivances and subornations 
of Trade, are esential to present succes ; I declined making what I 
then considered a useless submision of the Work, either to the 

Sed trahit in spatium ; 

Induiturque aures lente gradientis aselli. 

Ovid Met. B. XI. I. 174. 

The God to punish such presumptuous pride, 
Yet still with justice swayed to mercy's side^ 
To those so dull and tuneles ears decreed 
A "bounteous length, to serve the Ass's need. 



XV1U PEEFACE TO THE 

negative effect of Foreign indiference, or to that anticipated 
Foreign oposition, which has presented itself in the form of a 
thotles, and I must supose a reversible condemnation. For a 
'cry of critics ' is by no means to be let loose in our case, as in 
that of the great-baby-ism of a banquet speech; an every-day 
marketable fiction ; some threadbare history, a thousand times re- 
writen; and the ' light reading ' biographical gosip on a popular 
career; which with the comonplaces of knowledge, a habit of 
scholarship, and the haste of uncorected thot, may be whiped-over 
in an evening, by a run and skip of the pen. Nor will more than 
thrice 'ten sterling pounds per sheet/ pay for the Pauses and 
Plunges, the re-pausing and re-plunging, necesary for a deep and 
thorou inquiry into the new analysis and clasification, and for an 
impartial and responsible decision upon it.* 

This Work is to be thoroly studied as a whole, and taught in all 
its fulnes ; not to be here and there sketched-off, in a few pages of 
a quarterly journal, and poorly ilustrated by ocasional examples 
of its good or indiferent quality. If, in executing it, we had thot 
of the Reviewers, we would have prefigured an individual of those 
ready scribesj as Horace denotes the genus, standing on one foot, 
and writing without fatigue^ taking his text from the Title of the 
Workj peeping between its uncut leaves* mistaking its themej un- 
dervaluing its contents, for the purpose of concealing the use of 
themj and then extracting what would suit his sory ambition to 
furnish a useles article, he might choose to cal an original essay of 
his own. 

Having learned however, that at least one or two orders for the 

* To Jeffrey go, "be silent and discreet, 
His pay is just ten sterling pounds per sheet. English Bards, I. 70. 

See the whole of Byron's retortive method of distiling down to & caput mor- 
tuum, the enlarged spleen and personal gal of his merciles Scotch Keviewer : 
who tho l self constituted Judge' in the Court of the Muses, could not make 
himself Prophet enuf, to forese in the youthful Poet, the potential pen, and 
the future actual vengeance of his intended victim : and who showed quite as 
much il-natured surprise, at the bare thot of a Noble Lord presuming to pub- 
lish a poemj as our Englishman of the thrice ten silver pieces has done, at the 
suposition of one whom he takes to be a Democrat, daring to uter some origi- 
nal truths, which from their not being yet vulgarized, he, himself a demo- 
cratic thinker and writer, canot comprehend. 



FIFTH EDITION. XIX 

book had come from England ; and suposing, that without being 
an object of general interest, it might here and there atract a 
curious reader, if set before hinij I proposed to the American 
publishers, to try an experiment with it, on the noiseles, candid, 
and unhired English intelect. Fifty copies of the fourth edition 
were sent : and imediately thereupon, one of the most powerful 
and popular Periodicals of the Kingdom, suported by its full 
share of an aray of the * intelect, learning, research/ and of the 
pen-paying, and mind-impairing Journalism of the Nineteenth 
Century, has determined for all those who do not read and think 
for themselves, that even if there could be the human imposibility 
of a Natural Science of Speechj the ' Philosophy ' has not the mi- 
raculous Gift of ear and tongue, nor the descriptive and clasifying 
pen to furnish it. 

And yet to record fairly, I have met with one instance, from 
which it does apearj there is not a universal deafnes to the voice 
of the Work, in our over-critical, over-compiling, and compared 
with what she has been, and with what she rightly should be, in 
intelectual fertility, our present under-producing Mother Island. 
But notwithstanding the candid admission by Better England her- 
self, of the decline of the originality and vigor of her intelect, into 
the desultory and garbling method of Criticism, which under its 
meanly masked, and iresponsible Oligarchy, has at last brot-down 
the debilitated pen with its ' tlmling* naratives, ' startling' fictions, 
and threadbare truths, to seek the protective patronage of the 
reading milion; still we should not altogether adopt the comon 
opinion, that a critical age, more than the declining life of man, 
tho it may generally, should be necesarily and without exception, 
garulous on every-day thots and thingsj and turn-drowsy over 
the tasking pages of original truth ; should be given up to fond- 
ling the pets of a family ; and to being peevish, or rude, or va- 
cantly ' sans ears ? to the voice of the stranger without the gate of 
its calculating generosity. For we have all heard that Cato, the 
Censor, tho of the ruf Roman Horde, the piratical archetype of 
our boasted Anglo-Saxon race, did in his old age, lay open his 
mind to new and refined instruction, even thru the embarassing 
inlet of a foreign tongue. 

The slightest clearing however, of the brow in a frowning 



XX PREFACE TO THE 

parent deserves our grateful acknowledgment ; and it is justly to 
be recorded here, that about eight years ago, there fell into my 
hands, and it is now before me, a new edition of ' Garrick's man- 
ner of reading the Liturgy j' prefaced with a ' Discourse on public 
reading/ by one caling himself a ' Tutor in Elocution/ and pub- 
lished at London, and Cambridge, in eighteen hundred and forty; 
thirteen years after the date of the i Philosophy of the Human 
Voice/ There is loosely scatered over this Discourse, and am- 
bitiously apropriated to itself, tho poorly comprehended, some of 
the facts and principles taken without acknowledgment from the 
i Philosophy ; ? while its Author is quoted by name, in an out-of- 
the-way foot-note, for a single term of his nomenclature. On 
the undefined and limited ground of these disjointed facts and 
principles, the Tutor anounces a ' forthcoming work on the human 
voice, and its expresion in speech ; ' derived, as his own confident 
promise and his means lead us to conclude, from some other source 
than that of his own observation and reflection. If after nineteen 
years, this great work has not forth-come, we must think, from 
what he has already in comon with the ( Philosophy/ and from his 
vague maner of defining and dividing^ that it would save both 
himself and his readers much trouble, to republish if permited, 
the work, of which he seems so clearly to aprove, rather than 
furnish a strong resemblance to its contents, in his own maner of 
describing them.* 

He who claims the right to a discovery already published, 
asumes either to be the first and ful author of it, or to have had 
an obscure hint of it, in some maner, he is not often forward to tel. 
On which of these two grounds then did the Tutor get the general 
fact, that the intervals of the diatonic scale, with the exception of 
the second, may be perceptibly and nameably aplied to individual 
sylables, for the purpose of vocal expresion ; and that the second 
alone is used for unimpasioned discourse ? How did he draw from 

* The Tutor has more recently published two small pamphlets, under the 
respective names of an { Introductory lecture,' and 'Acoustics and Logic;' 
in which his aprobation of our new Analysis and system of the voice is fur- 
ther shown by his free, yet stil>garbled use of its pages. In the present com- 
ents, I refer indiscriminately to each of these three scrap-sketches^ which 
may be resolved into cases either of sad halucination or of unblushing 
plagiary. 



FIFTH EDITION. XXI 

a little corner of his mind, the comprehensive induction, that Em- 
phasis, in a broad and scientific definition, should include the dis- 
tinguishable detail of every mode of the voice? From whose 
extended view did he sketch, on his fifty-ninth page, a synopsis of 
the whole of Analytic speech? What taught him to make the 
long overlooked but remarkable distinction between the diatonic 
melody j which he awkwardly calls, ' speech melody j' and the con- 
trasted expresion of other intervals, when laid upon it ? Who told 
him of that threefold and nice distinction in sylabic forcej caled 
in the ' Philosophy ' the Radical, Median, and Vanishing Stress ? 
Where did he learn, that the usual elocutionary terms, found even 
in his own Editorial little-book, are from the want of analytic de- 
scription, altogether indefinite and uninstructive ? And who told 
him, without seeing an exact system in his ' mind's eye/ if he has 
one, or somewhere in print, the fact of the Old Elocution being so 
vague, imperfect, and impracticable, that we therefore now require 
a new, precise, and Scientific Institute of the speaking voice ? 

The history of the voice contained in the following Work, far 
from being only as the Tutor could comprehend and represent 
itj a hasty catching-up of unconected details, to suit a compiler's 
purpose^ embraces generalities of related phenomena, deliberately 
gathered within that ever audible, yet till lately, unentered field 
of Intonation ; where the natural voices of thot and pasion had 
long floated on the air, inviting, but still awaiting, the event of 
a careful clasification and nomenclature. No aimles and hasty 
catching here and there, at unasorted sounds, astray from inter- 
comunion with the vocal unity of that field, could have brot them 
together even as awkwardly as the Tutor has done. He did not 
find them in Mr. Steele, or Mr. Walker, or in Authors who have 
adopted their limited and vague, or erroneous descriptions ; and 
if they were not picked at random, from the i Philosophy of the 
Human Voice/ or taken out of some American school-book, care- 
lesly representing a few of the facts and principles, detached from 
that ' Philosophy/ it might be inferedj they were also original 
with him. But an original and pervading truth never stands still, 
nor travels alone in the mind ; and if he who may claim to have 
discovered certain important facts and principles of speech, should 
not himself have seen much further, and more clearly into related 



XX11 . PEEFACE TO THE 

truths, he must excuse us, if we conclude, that he did not first 
perceve them at all.* 

The above case reminds me, that about a year after the first 
apearance of the ( Philosophy j ? the Rector of a church in the State 
of New York, published as his own, in a worthies little school- 
book j with the common promise of a larger work j a hudled compi- 
lation of facts and principles on the subject of the voice, identical 
with some of those set-forth in the i Philosophy ; ' and with the very 
verbal examples, used for their ilustration; thus antedating the 
Tutor in his claims, by about eleven years. Had he regarded the 
words of the Evangelist, more than his own hopes, that a fraud 
undetected might pas for a discovered truth, he would have thot 
of his Great, but unheeded Master's liberal and just imperative; 
which we alter for present aplication. Render his own unto 
Caesar; and to the literary Pilferer, the Bare-Faced Nothings 
that belong to him. 

This case of the American Rector is here aded, to show that we 
have no contra-national, nor exclusive views to foreign grand or 
pety-plagiary : and to say, that could we be alowed to turn from 
the truth and honor of Science, to a just personal retribution, we 
might reciprocate the Reviewing-favor of the Periodical stipendi- 
ary j in kindly drawing British atention to our Title-page, and in 
hastening the cal for this Fifth edition^ by hanging him up, with 
his deficient ear, anonymously conspicuous, between two of those 
who are found with, or use without acknowledgment, or who 
sneakingly carry away what does not belong to them. 

There is here no prying curiosity about the names, nor idle 
thots on the motives of individuals. The rights of truth and jus- 
tice, from the universality of their claims, shud defend themselves 
by general means, without descending into local or special conten- 
tion with the temporary interest of men. Our readers will per- 
haps find, we have something to spare ; and we may add, that with 
a courteous use, and acknowledgment, it might have been taken, 

* Bad speling, says the Dictionary, ' is disreputable to a gentleman.' For 
an acount of the disgraceful practical usefulnes of the above, and our other 
instances of bad speling, the Reader is refered to the preceding Notice. The 
time is perhaps far-off, when perseverance in eror will be considered un- 
becoming in a gentleman. 



FIFTH EDITION. XX111 

with our recorded thanks for the patronage. This Work was writ- 
ten for the fair and profitable use of inteligent and honorable In- 
structors ; but the same purpose that offers it with no view whatever 
to personal advantage, nor to present aprobation, must necesarily 
turn with contempt and indignation, from meanness, artifice, and 
fraud, in those who choose to accept its asistance. 

If the smart writer of commonplaces, and Jester- Wit of the day, 
on once askings ' Who reads an American book/ had only adedj 
the Englishman who steals from it, he would himself have made 
all the taunting fun in the case ; and not have left others to suply 
his unlucky oversight, by what he would most have feltj a retro- 
verted sarcasm. For he has somewhere remarked, that 'it is all 
over with a wit/ when his expected aplause is given to an unex- 
pected turn against him: a condition to which he never even 
dreamed himself liable. 

While engaged upon this preface, I met with an Article in the 
Westminster Review, for July, eighteen hundred and fifty-six ; in 
which the writer, with unusual candor towards this Country, gives 
a flagrant instance, showing, that he who purloins from an ' Amer- 
ican book/ must have been the 'who' to 'read' it. The case is 
this. One of his countrymen brot out a Latin-English dictionary, 
claiming to be based on the Italian work of Forcellini, and the 
German of Freund; ninety-five per cent, of which, says the 
writer, is servily copied from a translation of the last named Au- 
thor by several American hands, and published at New York : 
while aparently to hoodwink his conscience in the act, the literary 
plunder is ' most vehemently condemned' by the depredator, in the 
very act of carying it away. It is no set-off to this charge of in- 
ternational freebooting that the instances of piracy by America, on 
Britain, and Continental Europe, are perhaps more than a thou- 
sandfold, beyond those of a reverse direction of the Bucaneer de- 
scent ; for vices thus credited are debtors stil, and are not to be 
canceled by the balance of an acount between them. 

We owe this however to the Tutor ; that having used with ap- 
robation, some of the leading principles of the New system ; and 
promising a fuler detail of them, he has intimated his belief in 
the posibility of so describing the constituents of speech, as to en- 
able himself or others, to found a practical method of instruction 



XXIV PEEFACE TO THE 

upon them: which is a considerable advance towards introducing 
among his countrymen, a New Order in the Art of speaking ; at 
whatever time and in whatsoever maner it may be aplied, to explain 
and justify upon principle, any instinctive proprieties, and to corect 
by rule, any thotles erors, that may be found in their old and 
imperfect system. 

But as to our Agressor of the Thirty Pieces, with perhaps no 
more eye for costume than ear for speech ; why may he not be 
some Professor under the now declining school of elocution ; who, 
fearful of losing even his short-lived profits in an ephemeral text- 
book, and with an inveterate pride in the il-fashioned and thread- 
bare suit of his mastership, has artfully set himself to prevent 
others from adopting the new style of Oratorical Robe, in its 
Natural cast of vocal drapery ; which on being first presented to 
him, he must have perceved, could never be made to fold grace- 
fuly on himself. And it is here to be remarked, that when a critic 
of the trading sort has a pecuniary, an ambitious, a dogmatic, or a 
grumbling interest in condemning a workj he is very apt to con- 
found his argument on the subject, with some querulous feeling 
towards the author, who may inadvertently have brushed against 
his temperament, or thwarted his calculations.* 

It is for all of us, an excelent Law of Suspicion, that subjects 
the pretensions of both Invention and Discovery, to the slow and 
cautious test of Time. For in the present distrusted state of 
human promises and powers, it afords the only means of protec- 
tion against the artful haste of an Impostor, by cuting-off his sole 
reliance on the chance of imediate suces. It is however no legiti- 
mate part of this defensive ordination, that even questionable 

* It is an incident, deserving a place in our present record, that while the 
thousand hovering Hawks of British Periodicals dive at, and clutch-up any 
and every sort of game, just as it alights before the public, they should for 
seven and twenty years have pased by our folded wing, quietly waiting for 
future flight; thinking us perhaps, too tasteles or tough for their beakj and a 
kind of nourishment altogether foreign to their habitual proces of asimila- 
tion : and yet, to drop our figurej at the moment this Volume was to be dis- 
tributed from the shelves of a London Bookseller, that it should have rouzed 
the trading interest of some Fellow of the Selfish Society of School-book 
Copyrights, to atack our proposed substitute for his superanuated Art of 
reading ; thereby to sustain at once its decrepitude, and his own threatened 
ocupation. 



FIFTH EDITION. , XXV 

claims should, with a vain view to put them beyond the future 
reach of a just and decisive award j be presumptuously outlawed 
by an incompetent Tribunal, before their regular term of trial. 

But whatever may be the fair or biased opinions of others, one 
conclusion is quite satisfactory to the claims of the New Analysis ; 
and it may in future prevent unecesary dispute on those claimsj 
that the portion here ofered as original, having been a subject of 
sneering animadversion, which would certainly spare no contro- 
verting means, at the comand of European research, during thirty 
years of oportunityj there seems to be almost an asurance, that its 
facts and principles will not be hereafter refered to any other than 
a modern, and for the practical outwiting of the Reverend Jester- 
Wit, to a Transatlantic source. 

An early and short paragraphic notice of this Work, which I 
have heard, apeared in an English magazinej far from finding in 
its broad and leading principles, the traces of any former system, 
yet perhaps to avoid the obligation of a critical survey of its char- 
acter j pronounced it to be a century in advance of the age. It 
may indeed be so. But the truth of to-morrow, is the truth of 
to-day : and he who so cautiously gave a prospective estimate, in 
place of an imediate and responsible decision, which the ground 
of that estimate must have justifiedj was not quite criticaly honest 
towards the Work, nor to his own age propheticaly civil ; since 
in then ofering the hope of that future award, which he acknowL- 
edged to be justly due, he rather invidiously questioned the capacity 
of his cotemporaries, by asigning the power of comprehending the 
Work, to intelects a century in advance of theirs. 

And yet after all, what have the friends of the New and Pro- 
gressive System to do with the true or false calculation, and the 
waste-work of the every-day tongue and pen ? Let topics of the 
hour wrestle with topics of the hour. We offer to posterity, part 
of the History of the Laws of Nature, in the human voices here 
gathered into a comprehensive, and therefore to the present ma- 
jority of those it may concern, an incomprehensible Physical 
Science of Speech. If the critical Journalism of the nineteenth! 
Century, tho generally co-even with the conventional knowledge 
of the times, and not being able to rise so far above some of its 
embarasments and erors, as to perceve the extricating agency of a 
3 



XXVI PEEFACE TO THE FIFTH EDITION. 

few original and simple truths^ has with the old subterfuge of an 
indolent or deficient intelect, atempted to beat them down by sneer 
and denial j all our duty here requires, is to record the story of the 
harmles asault, in this now unregarded Volume ; which with its 
still unshaken belief in the future prevalence and sway of those 
truths, may yet go-forth and endure, because it anounces, and en- 
deavors to extend them. It was far from our intention to cast 
any pearls it might contain, before those who, ignorant of their 
value, disapointed at the unavailable profer, and balked into un- 
ruly iritation, would only inhumanly turn again and rend us. 

Finally, it will be learned, from the view we have taken of an 
inefectual opositionj there can be neither here nor elsewhere, an 
intentional submision to that criticism, which, if not deceved thru 
incapacity or ignorance, must know itself to be grosly at fault. 
The i Philosophy of the Human Voice/ from its maner of ob- 
serving and representing nature, does not owe this submision to 
any unavailing atempt to condemn it. Yet it canot avoid com- 
iserating that deafnes, and indiference in high places which thus 
far, it has with all its remedial instruction, uterly failed to cure. 
Nor do I mean to ofer a responsive defense of the facts and prin- 
ciples set-forth in this ' Philosophy : ' beleving, that under an 
observant, reflective, and candid investigation, they wil, by the 
voice of others in unison with the voice of Nature, at some time 
truly speak for themselves. 

As a necesary part of this record, I have unfortunately been 
obliged, under some prospective views, to notice unoticeable, and 
to me happily, unknown individualities : but having on this oca- 
sion taken a nearer view of the ofense than of the ofenders, I 
have, with generic touches only, and with a mitigated reaction on 
their thotles inroad, been careful to treat them as many now, and 
more hereafter may think, with greater kindnes than their cases 
deserve. 



JPhiladelphia, May 5, 1859. 



PREFACE 



FOURTH EDITION. 

A conceit has for some time been circulating in this country, 
tending to persuade every body, that while they are constitu- 
tionaly the sovereigns over their own destiny in. government, they 
are also sovereign over the rights of individuality, and the re- 
straints of good-breeding, morals, and law ; with the further claim 
to tyrannize over independence of thot, and to bind-down the fre- 
ranging power of originality. This last authority asumes, that 
originality, with its Patents of discovery and invention, often with 
us, so cruely involved in litigation, canot in justice be the privilege 
of an individual ; that whatever aparent novelty a person may pro- 
mulgate, it is only as the spokesman of a committe of the whole 
human mind, which has previously counseled, matured, and directed, 
all he has reported. That what was formerly suposed to be the 
torch of discovery, in a single hand, is, in this popular era of 
equal rights and Intelect-in-Commonj found to be merely a break- 
ing-out, at one human spot, of the ful-prepared and anticipated 
light of a colective efort in progresive instruction. 

This may indeed be true, of gradual changes in the comon 
afairs of life; and of politicians, in whose craft there is now, 
nothing new under the sun ; of the lawyer, whose slow thinking 
by the law, is his slow law of thinking ; of the physician, whose 
rule of progres, is just to keep along with the progres ; of the 
sectary, whose orthodoxy means the comon-doxy of himself and 
his disciple ; and of the popular Great Man of the day, whose 

(xxvii) 



XXV111 PEEFACE TO THE 

endles intimacies so identify him with every body, that his con- 
cerns in a joint-stock of interest and ambition, both waste his 
mind with reciprocal, and importunate obligations, and take from 
him the power of thinking, for himself. It is likewise true of 
governments, which, with ocasional comotions, always rise or f al 
by gradual change ; and of some of the arts, particularly Archi- 
tecture; for tho by its own principles, capable of any number 
of distinct and self-unitized Orders, yet being without examplar 
forms in nature, its improvement and decline have been no more 
than sucesive variations of preceding designs. It is not true 
however, of those who outstrip the world by unrestrained obser- 
vation and reflection; unawed by the frowns of conventional 
authority, and far away as possible, from the mischievous delu- 
sions of the opinions of men. Since the ' idols of the market/ ' of 
the theater/ and of the comon mental-exchange, are idols, deaf 
as well as dumbj and altogether so impotent, that when implored 
for the favor of original thot, are always implored in vain. 
Neither is it true of that elegant Art of the Landscape, which 
with its ' directing wand ' transforms to a Garden, the wildernes 
of Nature ; and which presented, at the ' Improver's word, ' an 
asemblage of the grand, the beautiful, the varied, and the pic- 
turesk ; giving to England the claim of ading to the ' Nine, y 
another Muse, already in her few counted years, ful-endowed with 
dignity of character softened into grace ; yet never hoped-for nor 
expected, because never foreseen. 

This notion of co-equalityj that no one shall, without penalty 
for the ofense, have a thot not common to every body elsej is 
one of the dreams of a popular l mass-meeting ; ' and seems to be 
a confused atempt to express the simple truism, that no in- 
vention or discovery is adopted by the world, until every body 
can make use of it, or is of the same opinion as the author. For 
it is with the original truth of Science, as with the prudential 
ofer of practical advice ; nobody adopts it, except it confirms his 
previous belief. But the mass-meeting is stil a mass, and wil 
have its own stuborn and headstrong way. The Work therefore, 
of which I here offer the fourth edition much enlarged, will I sup- 
ose be tried, and perhaps condemned by its rules. If the united 
inteligence of the age, joining imediately in the advancement of 



FOURTH EDITION. XXIX 

any point of knowledge, is to be the test of its truth, upon the 
asumed ground that the mind of the age has, up to the last step, 
produced the advancement^ the work before us can offer scarcely 
a claim to atention. And I have no pride of authorship to 
prevent the candid declaration, that from its first apearance, to 
this time, a period of twenty-seven years, its only direct debt of 
gratitude is to a comparatively smal number of teachers, some 
inquiring and musical mechanics, and a few unmusical members 
of the Society of Friends. For, as far as I can learn, ninety- 
nine hundredths of all Physiologists, whose purpose it is to de- 
scribe the voice ; of Masters of coleges and schools, who teach 
the art of reading; of Elocutionists, whose materials of speech 
are furnished here; of Naturalists, who thru the wide range 
of zoology, might take an interest in comparative Intonation ; of 
the Votary of the fine arts, who might here see the seventh muse, 
now crowned by Science; of the Universal Grammarian, who 
might learn that various modes of mere sylabic sound are no 
less naturaly significant of thot and passion, than conventional 
words are significant of a gramatical sentence; and finaly of 
the Philosopher of the mind, who might perceve some important 
and interesting relations of language to passion and thought : Of 
these I repeat it, there are ninety-nine hundredths, so far from 
having had directly a preparatory hand in this work, do not, after 
it has been before them more than a quarter of a century, even yet, 
as to its systematic and practical aplication, appear to know what it 
means. 

Acording to this popular notion of mas-thinking co-equality, 
and co-laboration, our book stands in a dilema. For on the one 
side, those who are eminently qualified to discover its meaning, 
have found none. Co-laboration therefore could have had no 
hand in it ; and the world, on this ground, not being now pre- 
pared for it, certainly never can be. On the other side, if the 
principle of co-laboration is not always true, this Work may be 
founded in nature, and may be a contribution to the expresive 
and the beautiful in speech; even tho the Learned world was 
neither prepared for its reception, or even able to comprehend it 
when it came. But time who settles so many diferences, must 
determine Avhether the co-laborative rule is sometimes false, or the 



XXX PREFACE TO THE 

' Philosophy of the Human Voice/ no beter than a dream. All 
I have to say to the Votary of analytic science and taste, isj 
'Strike, but ? read me ; for I canot help think ingj if you do read 
without prejudice, tho you canot take back the contemptuous blow, 
you will not strike again. 

It has been more than once said to me personaly, and stated in 
print, that the ' Philosophy of the Human Voice 7 has exhausted 
its subject. It is to be regreted, with regard to the past and future 
in Science, to which we should always look with thank fulnes and 
hope, that it has ever been so regarded ; for if I perceve the 
future in this Workj it has but just begun its subject, on a new 
and lasting foundation. And above all, it shud be regretedj if the 
calculation, that nothing more can be made out of it, shud be even 
the least cause for overlooking it. On the contrary, I canot here 
withhold the prediction, that when taken up as a subject of further 
inquiry, and as a part of education, its inteligent Profesors will 
extend and exalt it to a degree, I canot now anticipate or compre- 
hend. I would wilingly have assisted earlier laborers at our work, 
by vocal proof and ilustration ; but my time is fast going by, and 
when they do enter upon the field, I canot be there. 

The history of one of the fine arts, recently revived in England, 
has often in my mind, been conected with our present subject ; and 
as I have folowed in reading, the progres of that art, from the time 
it first began to gather-in its facts, and frame its principles, up to 
its present mature and esthetic conditionj I feign at least, a plea 
for noticing it here. 

I remember, my earliest curiosity for Gothic architecture was 
excited by Scott's poems ; and on going to Scotland, in the year 
eighteen hundred and nine, the first of its proper structures I saw, 
was the Cathedral of Glasgow. It was then all eye-sight and 
novelty with mej not taste ; yet perhaps, as a first instinctive step 
towards it, I departed with an unsatisfied desire, for that knowl- 
edge of the nomenclature of its system and detail, which wud have 
given materials to my memory, with some order and co-relation to 
my thots. I did ask the Old Dame who conducted me, many ques- 
tionsj but I had learned more from the 3Iinstrel and Marmion, than 
she ever knew. Medical studies and other inquiries ocupied me 
a year in Edinburgh. During a subsequent residence in London, 



FOURTH EDITION. XXXI 

I procured the small volume of essays by Wharton and others ; 
and Milner's treatise, together with his History of Winchester. 
By means of their chronicle of styles and changes in the artj by 
their explanation of terms, or an incidental use of thenij and by 
the light of taste, just dawning in the pages of Milnerj I was 
enabled, after visiting churches, to compile for my own private 
instruction, and as my own remembrancer, something like an ele- 
mentary compend : including a description of the structure of the 
cathedral ; the character and sucesions of its various styles ; an ex- 
planation of the terms of the art, far as they had then been asigned ; 
and an acount of the division, distribution and purposes of the 
Monastery. This little manuscript is dated in eighteen hundred 
and eleven, and however trifling, is among the earliest, as I am in- 
formed, in that systematic maner of treating the subject. There 
was then neither name nor fame in the art ; and the interest in 
it, was confined to as few perhaps, as those now interested in the 
analysis of speech. 

On revisiting England in eighteen hundred and forty-five r 
I found Gothic. Architecture had become so popular, that the 
amatur and compiler had begun to rival the profesional artist. 
Every gentleman was required to have a smatering at least, of 
its terms ; and many a rail-car pasenger was ready to tell you 
of Norman, Early English, Decorated, and Perpendicular styles. 
My sympathy with an enthusiast, at the Winchester Station, 
made quite friends of us, as we together traced the Cathedral 
forms and chronology j from Walkelyn's Norman ' arches broad 
and round, f to the grand and graceful unity of Wykeham ; which 
seems yet to say to the artj Thus far shuldst thou go and no 
farther, and here shud thy pure and finished style be staid. 

Perhaps an Englishman might say 3 this suden intimacy, ' with- 
out knowing who people are, ' even tho the intimacy sprung from 
congenial knowledge in an elegant artj was ' very improper indeed. ' 
But we soon parted, and forever ; yet I beleve, neither has since 
sufered any inconvenience from our sociability, while I very 
agreeably receved much satisfactory information. 

Regarding then the restoration of Gothic architecture j may we 
ask, if the time will ever come, when the art of analytic speech, 
now the humble topic of a small fraternity, may so far obtain a 



XXXU PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION. 

hearing from the world, that some influential patrons will, as 
hapened with that once o'er-shadowed art, draw ours too from ob- 
scurity ? Will the time ever come, when our School of Nature 
and Inquiry may say, and it will be admited, that Mrs. Siddons 
derived her great dignity in Tragedy, from a well directed use of 
the Diatonic Melody, more than from any other means of intona- 
tion ; and that Barry, in characters of tendernes, owed his supe- 
riority over Garrick, to his delicate execution, and apropriate use 
of the Semitonic Wave ? Will it come, when on the authority of 
our principles, it will be beleved if I say, that the later Booth, 
tho rejected or undervalued, perhaps on some business calculation, 
by London Managers, yet apart from the ranting scenes of the poet, 
had in his beter days, with least of the vocal vices of the stage, 
and hardly an afectation, one of the most elegant and apropriate 
intonations I have ever heard ? And finally, will not the time 
come, when in some future system of speech, raised upon the 
foundation here laid in Observation^ principles may take the place 
of authority ; and the name of Master being no more bandied 
and kept up by contentious opinion, may be superseded by ac- 
knowledged precept, and then be forgoten ? 



Philadelphia, January 1, 1855. 



PREFACE 



THIRD EDITION. 






The l Philosophy of the Human Voice* was first published, 
nearly eighteen years ago ; and as the lapse of time has aforded 
ample oportunity for determining, how far its descriptions acord 
with the phenomena of Nature, it may not be uninteresting to 
the reflective student of elocution, to have a short acount of its 
reception, and of its progres within this period. 

Two editions have been published ; one of five hundred copies, 
in January, eighteen hundred and twenty-seven; the other, of 
twelve hundred and fifty copies, in June, eighteen hundred and 
thirty-three. And altho the work has been out of print for six 
years, the present edition is not perhaps essential to its preservation ; 
there being already abroad, print enuf to furnish a revival-copy, 
when the humor of those who hold the great seals of patronage, 
may choose to give it a place in their encyclopedia of knowledge, 
and their schools of practical instruction. It is rather at the call, 
and for the sake of those few friendly Samaritans, who are dis- 
posed to take charge of it, while the Priest and the Levite of 
learning pass along on the other side, that I have with some 
inconvenience at this time, undertaken to republish it. 

The amount of good-will thus far extended to the Work, may 
scarcely deserve the name of patronage; but it is rather more 
than was expected, and will perhaps be suficient to keep it from 
oblivion. Upwards of twenty individuals with various qualifica- 
tions, have been ocupied in teaching some of its principles ; the 

(xxxiii) 



XXXIV PREFACE TO THE 

greater part of whom have lived in the Northern section of the 
United States ; at the Southj and West of the Susquehanna, it is 
little known. All the individuals aluded to, have respectively 
taut the Work, with a ful, or a limited comprehension of it, and 
a varied ability to aply it in practice. Some have been resident, 
others traveling teachers ; the later giving lectures, or temporary 
school-instruction, in towns and vilages. It may well be suposed, 
that teaching a system uninviting at least, if not repulsive from its 
novelty, would be no very profitable labor ; and such apears to 
have been the case, with those who have been ocupied in its pro- 
mulgation. 

As this Work profeses to set forth the universal principles of 
speech, the subject at least, is not beneath the notice of the phi- 
lologist of any age or nation. But as regards its foreign relation- 
ships, the ' Philosophy of the Human Voice ' has been obliged to 
come under that English interogative condemnation ' Who reads 
an American book?' 

To the scientific, in two or three parts of Europe, it is known 
by an ocasional whisper, that such a book exists. Two indi- 
viduals, Dr. Barber, and the Reverend Samuel Wood, have been 
the first to speak aloud of it in England ; but with what succes, 
I am not informed. It remains all-dusty, on the shelves of many 
of the Public libraries of Europe ; and is in the posesion of some 
of those who give fashion to the science of the times. Yet it has 
never receved a strictly investigating notice ; no examination by a 
qualified and authoritative ear, which mit decide, whether what 
is here ofered as the truth of Nature, is or is not, that very truth. 
And, as in preparing the Work for others, the Author was, by 
circumstances, the solitary pupil of his own instruction^ so with 
hope-defered, to corect its faults by the aid of competent counsel, 
he has been obliged, in the enlargement, and variations of each 
sucesive edition, to be his own contributor ; and to asume the ofice 
of an insuficient, and perhaps partial critic over himself. 

The greater number of the pupils and friends of this system, 
have been of that clas, which the Rank and Fashion of Science 
cals the humble and Unknown ; Persons of no acount ; yet long 
noted, for sometimes doing new and most excelent things, and for 
very frequently, first helping them along. 



THIRD EDITION. » XXXV 

Of the infinitude of demagogues in our country, from the Can- 
didate for Presidency, down to him who works the plot of Nomi- 
nation, and who all, in one debasing brotherhood but with a varied 
personality, are at the same time, corupting their voices, their in- 
telect, their moral principles, and their republican governmentj of 
all these, I have not heard of one, who has had time or repose 
enuf to inquire, even whether this system mit not, if so il-used 
alas ! imbue his Speeches with a more impresive sophistry, and 
graceful vocal-cuning, to alure, to blind, and to mislead the people. 

Of the many Actors whom I have known or heard of, none 
seem to have thot of such a thing as a philosophy of the voice ; 
or that the department of speech which this Book particularly re- 
gards, requires the improving aid of science ; or, that succes in their 
art can be otherwise efected than by some mysterious e power of 
genius/ One individual, after having left the Stage, has formed an 
asociation in Boston, for teaching the principles of this philosophy. 

Here and there, a young Lawyer, with that generality of mental 
temperament and inkling of taste, which in this country at least, 
is rather a drawback to advancement in his Profession, has looked 
into this subject, tried a few lesons, and then abandoned his purpose. 

The Clergy were among the first to regard the system with 
favor ; and many had industry enuf to look into it. " 

I have known one physician only, who comprehended the de- 
sign, and studied its details; but he is deceased. Why it has 
found no favor with the Medical Faculty, merely as a subject of 
physiology, is perhaps to be solved by these facts : it is strictly 
observative ; it rejects all notions, and quarelsome theories ; has 
not yet come into popular use ; and is the contribution, such as it 
is, of a physician. 

Musicians and singers, together with certain amaturs and critics, 
who constantly hover about them, have given no atention to this 
subject. Of a large number of these, I have found none able to 
apreciate our history, or to conceve how speech and music might 
be different branches of the same art. To this I may add the re- 
markable circumstance, that while musicians and singers j who have 
by habitual practice if not by instinctive ear, the most precise dis- 
crimination of tunable sounds 3 are unable to recognize the peculiar 
music of speech, and even to comprehend the meaning of this 



XXXVI PREFACE TO THE 

Workj there is a clasj the Society of Friends, who, by the strictest 
discipline, shun all the graces of Art ; who never cultivate the ear 
either by instrument or voice, but fantasticaly corupt it in their 
public discourse; who yet, when adressed by the system, have 
formed a large proportion of its pupils, and have comprehended 
its design, tho they may not have always been able, vocaly to 
execute its rules. 

A few teachers of Salmody apear to have read the Work ; and 
far as they have found its discriminations and terms aplicable to 
their purpose, have adopted them in their Manuals of instruction. 

Of readers who hold the scientific influence, whatever that may 
be, of this country, very few have regarded it either with curiosity 
or favor. But what makes their case remarkable is, that in their 
own want of capacity, they always supose the deficiency to be on 
the side of the Author. One says, it is a sealed book ; another, 
that it might as well have been written in Hebrew. An eminent 
leader of opinion, on this side of the water, says, it is not worth 
reviewing : while on the other side, one of the very highest rank, 
in British periodical criticism, declares, in the frank confesion of 
an inefable superiority, that ' it quite surpases his comprehension.' 
One, not contented with his own single incompetence, takes the 
Author into his company, by sayingj he himself does not know 
his own meaning ; and to a high-placed medical Professor, and a 
practical musician, the work was altogether so uninteligible, that 
he recomended one of his friends to read it, as a fine example of 
the incoherent language of insanity. 

These remarks have a place here, not from their importance 
either to the author or his subject; but as minor chronicles, 
colateral to the early history of the Philosophy of Speech. And 
I am quite wiling to beleve, that whether they came from igno- 
rance or from spleen, they were the ofspring of an idle humor, by 
this time, changed to something else equally foolish or bad. These 
however may have been words of a moment, and then forgoten. 
Two, and only two, far as known, have employed time, reflection, 
argument, public lecturing and printing, in dispute of the claims 
of this Work. 

Under the article, Philology, in the ' Encyclopedia Americana, ' 
the translation of a German essay, the President of the American 



THIED EDITION. XXXV11 

Philosophical Society, after stating, as well as he could compre- 
hend it, the design of the ' Philosophy of the Human Voice, ' 
gives, what he thinks, learned and suficient ground for determin- 
ing, not only that it has not, acording to its purpose, developed 
and measured the expresive movements of speech ; but that it never 
can be done. Not to contend here with a gentleman, who, at the 
head of all the philosophers, denies, what I perhaps vainly supose 
to have been acomplishedj I must hand him over to the unknown 
science and industry of future ages, to argue the case of its future 
imposibility ; only remarking here, that as it has been done already, 
in the Work, now in the distinguished President's hands, there 
can be nothing either imposible or miraculous in its being done 
again. 

The other formal decision against the means and end of this 
Work, comes, as I am told, from one of the thousand lecturers of 
the day, at Boston j whose name I cannot now call to mind. All 
I have to say of his attempt at refutation, having never seen the 
article, is, that in addition to the direct demonstration of the truth 
of the analysis, which the ear has given to some few inquirers, he 
has unexpectedly furnished us with that indirect proof, caled by 
logicians, the argumentum ducens in absurdum : meaning in plain 
Englishj the proposition must be true, when we cannot without 
absurdity, prove it to be false. 

I have a few words to add, on the subject of adapting the prin- 
ciples of this Work to the purposes of practical instruction. 
Seven or eight gramars or text-books of elocution, for the use 
of schools, have already been formed out of a different amount 
of its materials, and set forth with various degrees of ability. As 
the object is to render a gramar popular, it has been the aim of 
the compilers to simplify the system, and to furnish a cheap book ; 
by accomodating it as they supose, to the mental, and other necesi- 
ties of the learner. This atempt, either by its very purpose, or by 
the maner of its execution, has perhaps had the efect to retard the 
progres of the new system of the voice. For, the superficial char- 
acter of these books, and mingling parts of the old method with 
parts of the new, together with an atempt to give definition and 
order to these scatered materials, has left the inquirer unsatisfied, 
if indeed, it has not brought his mind to confusion. One of the 



XXXV111 PEEFACE TO THE 

difficulties of introducing new subjects of education is, that you 
give the scholar, as he thinks, too much to do. But in the condi- 
tion of all such cases, he must learn the whole of the new, or he 
learns comparatively nothing. The method of teaching by epit- 
ome, and by sketch, if not always imperfect or useless, is barely 
alowable when a general knowledge of the subject prevails, when 
hints go a great way, and expositors are found every where. I pub- 
lished this Work, under the expectation that it might for a time, 
be consigned to oblivion : hoping however, that if afterwards, a 
single worm-eaten copy should be recovered, with nature only for 
its ilustration, a knowledge of its analysis and purpose might be 
revived, without the living assistance of the Author. I wrote it 
too, with all the brevity its strangenes would alow ; and as well as 
I can foresee, with suiicient fulnes, to make it inteligible to ear- 
nest and competent inquirers. Indeed master as I may be of the 
whole indispensable contents, it wud be a hard task to usefully 
abreviate it, and utterly impossible to make it didactic in the space 
of their meager and garbled compilations ; but each compiler thinks 
he has a sagacious power of clear condensation. Within these limits 
of composition, it was my design so to describe the system and uses 
of the voice, that they might be audibly ilustrated for the benefit of 
the scholar; not to furnish materials, to be broken up, curtailed, 
jumbled into a text-book, and printed for the pecuniary benefit of 
a master. The purpose, seemed to need an apology ; and it is 
usually offered, under the consideration of the reduced cost of an 
abridgment, compared with that of a larger volume. But when 
was cheap knowledge, more than cheap work, ever worth even half 
of what was given for it? And generally speaking, if a sucesion 
of cheap, puny, and insuficient books, in most branches of educa- 
tion, did not everlastingly invite and delude the public, there wud 
be purchasers enuf, of what are now more expensive, and more 
useful works, to reduce them to a convenient cost. An unfortu- 
nate result of these suposed short-hand assistants to ignorance, 
taking the place of full and clear description, is that each compiler 
has a special interest in his own little book, to the exclusion of 
others of the same kind. And this produces, as I have witnesed, 
jealousies, and not a little back-biting criticism, among these several 
competitors for popular favor. One is said to have made an odd 



THIRD EDITION. XXXIX 

asemblage of the old indefinite system, with the new. One to 
have given too litle musical explanation ; another too much. This 
one's arangement is confused ; another's is no beter ; and a third 
has no arangement at all. One, in a desire to be popular, forgets 
to be descriptive. One is charged with slily taking his materials, 
without acknowledgment ; another, with boldly palming them off 
as his own. Another, suposing himself to have become original, 
by a long habit of copyings receves, or perhaps feigns, and pub- 
lishes compliments to himself, on his philosophical analysis, and 
on his new system of elocution. 

This is what these discordant Elocutionists, while drawing from 
a comon source, many with and some without acknowledgment, 
so criticaly say of each other ; he who makes the last book, being 
most obnoxious to the rest, by complaining before their face, of 
the want of a right kind of manual, which he invidiously under- 
takes to supply. 

One of the purposes of this Work is to showj by refuting an 
almost universal belief to the contrary^ that elocution can be 
scientificaly tat ; but the nianer of explanation and arangement in 
too many of these garbled school-book compilations, has gone far 
towards satisfying the objectors that it cannot. 

I make these remarks, with a disposition to advance an art, in 
which the persons here refered to, have joined the distracting and 
questionable interest of publishing, with the ocupation of ilus- 
trative teaching. If the time had arrived, for the friends or 
oponents of the system to become, by the habit of close and 
comprehensive investigation, authoritative and responsible critics, 
I would sit down with them, and together expunge all the erors 
of the ( Philosophy of the Human Voice ; ? and perceve, with sat- 
isfaction, all its omisions suplied. I never myself looked for, nor 
expected, nor have I received, the least pecuniary benefit from this 
Work : and it 6t to be regreted, if those who have that sort of gain 
in view, should, by their haste, or insuficiency, or their diferences 
among one another, mar the purpose and progres of that Art, in 
which, as a subject of knowledge and taste, all of us shud be 
equaly interested. 

Philadelphia, Dejember 2, 1841 



PREFACE 



SECOND EDITION". 



More than six years ago, I ofered the manuscript of the fol- 
owing Work, to the then principal bookseler of this city. En- 
gagements which promised to be more lucrative obliged him to 
decline the publication. The result has shown, that with his in- 
strumentalities of trade he mit have made a profitable sale of itj 
as, with my motives in authorship, I would have freely given the 
whole right of the edition to him. I made elsewhere, no second 
ofer of the Work ; for as it had been rejected by the so-caled 
foremost Publishing- Patron of American writers, I deprecated the 
influence of his example against it. Thus the first step of my 
authorship was unfortunate ; and as in these days of anxious be- 
nevolence, a very few misfortunes are sure to bring down contempt^ 
to save further ill luck, I printed it myself; and subsequently found 
an individual not unwilling to interest himself in distributing it. 

I remember, one of the Patron's objections, in the prophecy of 
Trade, to publishing the * Philosophy of the Human Voice ? wasj 
' its not being suited to this country.' It is true, the higher views 
of science and taste, and all individual independence of observa- 
tion and thotj in a country, where, before all others, nothing is 
adopted, or is sucesful, except with the influential agency of nuni- 
bersj are considered as rebellion against the Kingly-rule of Pop- 
ularity, and the Majorative-Despotism of its opinion. Yet upon 
this very conviction I ofered the Work to the public ; hoping, by 
the difusion of its principles, to bring it into that old and only 
4 (xli) 



xlii PREFACE TO THE 

path of truth, which begins with a few and ends with the many ; 
and, in due season, to suit the country to it. 

With here and there an exception, the scofers at this Work have 
been those eternal enemies to all disturbing originality, the Place- 
men of Learning. Suposing however that, thro the influence of 
knowledge made light and popular and cheap, the Arts are not so 
far downward, as to create despair of sucesful eforts by a new one, 
before their entire decay and future revival ; I would say to many 
of those who hold the places and draw the profits of science, that ■ 
if they will but continue to sheath their opposition in their feigned 
contempt, the first humble advocates of this Work may, by a grad- 
ual rise to those places and profits, see their own enlarged designs 
of instruction, in the course of half a century, completed. 

Several teachers in the United States have adopted the system. 
Dr. Barber, an English physician who had devoted himself to the 
study of elocution, and who came to Philadelphia about the period 
of its publication j was the first to admit its principles, and to 
defend them against the double influence of doubt and sneer, by 
an explanatory and ilustrative course of lectures.* Yale College, 
at New Haven, was early favorable to the system. But the Uni- 
versity of Cambridge, by apointing Dr. Barber to its department 
of Elocution, was the first chartered institution of science in this 
country that gave an influential and responsible aprobation of the 
Work. 

As this system furnishes general principles for an Art, hereto- 
fore directed by individual instinct or caprice j all who would 
teach that art by principles founded in nature, must sooner or 
later adopt it. Will the influential instructors of Philadelphia be 
the last? 

The objections first made to the ( Philosophy of the Human 
Voice/ were against its utility ; now the cry among the Learned isj 
it is too dificult. Too difficult ! Why, all new things are diffi- 
cult ; and if the scholastic pretender knows not this, let the annals 
of the Trades instruct him. Just one century has elapsed since 
that comon material of furniture, Mahogany, was first known in 

* Three years after the date of the 'Philosophy,' Dr. Barber published at 
New Haven, i a Gramar of Elocution' founded on that Work, as a Text-book 
to his oral instructions. 



SECOND EDITION. xliii 

England. It is recorded that Dr. Gibbons, an eminent physician 
of that period, had a brother, a West-India captain, who took 
over to London some planks of this wood, as balast. The Doctor 
was then building a house ; and his brother thot they might be of 
service to him. But the carpenters finding the wood too hard for 
their tools, it was laid aside. Soon after, a candle-box being wanted 
in his family, Dr. Gibbons requested his cabinet-maker to use some 
of this plank which lay in his garden. The cabinet-maker also 
complained, that it was too hard. The Doctor told himj he must 
get stronger tools. When however by sucesful means, the box was 
made, the Doctor ordered a bureau of the same material ; the color 
and polish of which were so remarkable, that he invited his friends 
to view it. Among them, was the Duches of Buckingham, who 
being struck with its beauty, obtained some of the wood ; and a like 
piece of furniture was imediately made for Her Grace. Under 
this influence, the fame of mahogany was at once established ; its 
manufacture was then found to be in nowise dificult ; and its em- 
ployment for both use and ornament has since become universal. 

The master-builders of science, literature, and eloquence, declared 
the ' Philosophy of the Human Voice ? to be too hard for their stu- 
dious energies; and threw it aside as useless. But a few humble 
Cabinet-makers of learning having somehow or other, got stronger 
tools, have already made the box ; are under way with the bureau ; 
and are only waiting for the authoritative influence of some leader 
of oratorical fashion, to produce a general belief in this simple 
truismj if we wish to read well, we must first learn 

HOW. 



Philadelphia, June 26, 1833. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The analysis of the human voice contained in the following 
essay, was undertaken a few years ago, exclusively as a subject of 
physiological inquiry. Upon ascertaining some interesting facts, 
in the uses of speech, I was induced to pursue the investigation ; 
and subsequently atempt a methodical description of the various 
vocal phenomena j thereby to include the subject within the limits 
of science, and assist the purposes of oratorical instruction. 

By every scheme of the cyclopedia, the subject of the voice is 
alotted to the physiologist ; yet upon its most important function j 
speech and its expresion, he has strangely neglected his part by 
borowing much of his suposed knowledge from the wild notions 
of rhetoricians, and the intermedling authority of gramarians. It 
is time at last, for physiology seriously to take up its task.* 

* In the fifth edition of this Work, I submited to the Reader, the first im- 
printing, and practical use of a Double Coma, as a symbol of Punctuation. 
The want of a point, for a significant pause between that of a coma and a semi- 
colon, must have been perceved by exact and thotful writers, in descriptive- 
and explanatory composition. For brevity, and easy rythmus in enumerating 
the points, it may, from the Greek dig, twice, be called Dicoma. The principal 
purposes for which I employ it are^ First ; as prefatory to an ilustrative in- 
stance ; or a question, or the statement of a question ; or a condition ; to indi- 
cate by the symbol, some notable meaning, shud the mind for the moment 
ask^ what is to follow. Second ; for cases when the gramar is prone to run 
on, and perspicuity requires a special suspension j beyond a point of longer 
rest than that of the coma. Third ; for subdivided short or long periodic sen- 
tencesj with or without other points^ to check the haste of gramatical partsj 
if disposed to run together ; thereby drawing atention to the individuality of 
members^ to releve the whole from intricacy. Fourth ; to bound parenthetic 
clauses, and in taking the place of the Dashj which is always a formles linear- 
blemish on the compact neatnes of print 3 to cary over the meaning and gramar,. 
thro the space between the pauses. Fifth ; as a direction to a Mowing prop- 
osition ; showings the punctuative means for suplying the place of the demon- 
strative that, when this pronoun precedes the word, there, or this, or they, or 

(45) 



46 INTRODUCTION. 

In entering on this inquiry, I resolved to have no reference to 
former writersj until the habit of discriminating the facts of the 
voice should be so far confirmed, as to obviate the danger of adopt- 
ing unquestioned erors, which the strongest efort of independence 
often finds it so dificult to avoid. Even a faint recolection of 
school instruction was not without its forbiding interference, in my 
first atempt to discover, by the ear alone, the hidden proceses of 
speech. 

After obtaining an outline of the work of Nature in the voice, 
suficient to enable me to avail myself of the useful truth of other 
observers, and to guard against their mistakes^ I consulted every 
acessible treatise on the subject, particularly the European com- 
pilations of the day, the authors of which have oportunities for 
learned research, not enjoyed in this country. Finding, on a fair 
comparisonj the folowing description of the voice represents its 
phenomena more extensively and definitely than any known sys- 
tem, I was induced to give it the durable form of Print. Many 
erors may be found in it ; but if the general history, and the ana- 
lytic development are not drawn from nature, and do not prompt 
others to cary the inquiry further, and into practical detail, I 
shall much regret the time wasted in the publication. 

It becomes me however, to remark, that as the greater part of 
this Work has not been made-up from the quoted, or controverted, 
or accomodated opinions of authors, I shall totally disregard any 
decision upon its merits, that is not the result of a scrutinizing 
comparison of its descriptions, with the phenomena of Nature 
herself. 

The art of speaking-well, has in most civilized countries been 

their, or itself repeated, or any other word of striking similarity in sound, 
which might ofend the ear. Sixth ; to separate, without aresting the bearing 
of the verb, a sucesion of members^ as objects of a previous action^ or as the 
agents of a prospective efectj which may mentaly indicate a less pause than a 
semicolon, and greater than a coma between them. Seventh ; the aplication 
of this point, under some of the preceding heads, is so indeterminate that the 
coma, not the semicolon, may be used with its meaning. 

All these case9 and perhaps more, are exemplified throhout this Volume. 
But punctuation partakes in a degree, of the whims of the human mind; and 
on this subject readers and writers will in many particulars, have each a whim 
of his own. Shud however, this new point be considered worthy of adoption, 
others may give more precise rules for its aplication. 



'introduction. 47 

a cherished mark of distinction between the elevated and the 
humble conditions of life; and has been imediately conected 
with some of the greater purposes of justice, religion, instruc- 
tion, and taste. It may therefore apear extraordinary, that the 
world, with all its works of philosophy, should have been satisfied 
by an instinctive exercise of the art, and by ocasional examples 
of its suposed perfectionj without an endeavor to found an ana- 
lytic system of instruction, productive of multiplied instances 
of succes. Due reflection however, will convince us, that even 
this extended purpose of the art of speaking has been one cause 
of the neglect. It has been a popular art ; and works for present 
popularity are too often the comonplace product of a comon- 
place ambition. The renowned of the bar, the senate, the pulpit, 
and the stage, aplauded into self-confidence by the undiscerning 
multitude, canot acknowledge the necesity of improvement; for 
the rewards that await the art of gratifying the general ear, are 
in no less a degree encouraging to the faults of the voice, than 
the aprobation of the milion is subversive of the rigid discipline 
of the mind. 

Physiologists have described and clased the organic positions 
that produce the alphabetic elements. This has been done by 
the rule, and with the succes of philosophy. On other points 
their atempts have not been so satisfactory. In describing the 
function of Pitch, or the rise and fall of the voice, which we here 
call Intonation, they have not designated by some known or in- 
vented scale, the forms and degrees of such movements; and 
furnished the required and definite detail in this department of 
speech. They have rather given their atention to the folowing 
inquiries : Whether the organs of the voice have the structure of 
a wind, or of a stringed instrument j how the falsete is madej and 
whether acutenes and gravity are formed by variations in the 
aperture of the glotis, or in the tension of its chords. In their 
experiments, they removed the organs from men and other ani- 
mals, and produced something like a living voice, by artificialy 
blowing through them. They carefuly inspected the cartilages 
and muscles of the larynx, to discover thereby the imediate 
cause of intonation, yet altogether overlooked the audible forms 
and degrees of that intonation. In short, they tried to see sound, 



48 INTRODUCTION. 

and to touch it with the diseeting-knife ; and all this, without 
reaching any positive conclusion, or describing more of the audible 
eject of the anatomical structure, than was known two thousand 
years ago. 

The Greek and Roman rhetoricians, and writers on music, 
recorded their knowledge of the functions of the voice. They 
distinguished its diferent Kinds, by the terms j harsh, smooth, 
sharp, clear, hoarse, full, slender, flowing, flexible, shril, and 
austere. They knew the Time of the voice, and had a view to 
what they called its Quantity in pronunciation. They gave to 
Force or Stres, under its form of acent and emphasis, apropriate 
places in speech. They observed the variation of acute and grave 
in sound ; and were the first to make an exact and beautiful analy- 
sis on this subject. They discovered two forms of transition be- 
tween acutenes and gravity ; one that ascends or descends, by a 
continuous movement or slide : the other, by an interupted move- 
ment or skip from place to place, in ascent and descent. They 
also perceved j the former is employed in Speech ; the later, on 
musical instruments. Tho, from carying the inquiry no further, 
they suposed, but eroneously as we shall learn hereafter, that one 
was soley apropriated to speech ; the other soley to instruments. 

The ancients however, show no acquaintance with the subdi- 
visions, definite degrees, and particular aplications, of those two 
general forms of pitchj for the discriminative purposes of oratori- 
cal use : and if we may judge, from an atempt by Dionysius of 
Halicarnassus to point out the diference between singing and 
speech, and from some other descriptions, totaly ireconcilable with 
the proprieties of modern, and as we shall learn hereafter, of 
natural and ordained intonation^ we must beleve they made on 
this point, only a limited analysis ; that the uses of pitch, or of 
the 'tones' of the voice, as they are caled, were conducted alto- 
gether by imitation ; and that the means of instruction were not 
reduced to any precise or available directions of art. 

No one can read that discourse on the management of the 
voice, in Quinctilian's elaborate chapter on Action, without alowing 
to the ancients a power of perceving many of the beauties and 
blemishes of speech. Yet among the numerous indications of their 
practical familiarity with the art of public speakingj we find no 



INTRODUCTION. 49 

clear description of its constituents, nor any definite instruction. 
The abundant detail thruhout his work more than once leads the 
Author to an apology for its minutenes ; and therefore precludes 
the suposition that he designedly overlooked any well known 
means, by which the various uses of the voice mit be represented 
with available precision. 

It is suposed, the ancient rhetoricians designated the pitch of vocal 
sounds by the term, Acent. They made three kinds of acentsj the 
acute, the grave, and the circumflex; signifying, severaly, the rise, 
the fall, and a continuation of these into a turn of the voice. The 
existence in Greek manuscripts, of certain acentual symbols, repre- 
senting these movements, which however were not aplied till about 
the seventh century, aforded the only data, for modern inquiry into 
the forms of Greek intonation ; and created a learned dispute j that 
was continued, without one satisfactory result, from the time of the 
Younger Vossius, to the recent days of Foster, and Gaily. 

If Greek Scholars had employed other means than wasteful 
wrangling with each other, for ascertaining the purpose of acentual 
marks, it wud long ago have been determined, whether they direct 
to any practical knowledge of Greek uterance, or are only a sub- 
ject for useles contention. Had the tongue and the ear, the ritful 
Masters in this school, been consulted, these symbols wud at once 
have been regarded as vague and meager representations of the full 
and measurable resources of the voice. 

The disputants found that degree of obscurity in the acount of 
ancient acent, which encourages the profitles labors, and alternate 
triumphs of party ; which subjects opinion to all the chicanery of 
sectarian argument ; and shuts out the conclusive inquiries of in- 
dependent observation. In the distracting fashion of the old 
dialectic art, and of its modern use, they ' discoursed about truth 
until they forgot to discover its' and while they exhibit a distresing 
waste of time, and temper, by continualy seeking in the flickering 
indications of unfinished records, the light which would steadily 
have arisen on their observation, they hold out to the future his- 
torian of literature, a temptation towards the sarcastic inquiry^ 
how far the writers on Greek and Roman acent were endowed with 
the powers of hearing and pronunciation. 

Since the decline, or the limitation of clasic authority, modern 



50 INTRODUCTION. 

inquirers, by listening to the sounds of their own language, have 
at last undertaken to discover other elemental functions of the 
voice, than those represented by acentual marks. 

The works of Steele, Sheridan, and Walker, have made large 
contributions to the long neglected, and stil craving condition of 
our tongue. 

Mr. Joshua Steele published, at London, in the year seventeen 
hundred and seventy-five, 'An esay towards establishing the 
melody and measure of speech, to be expresed and perpetuated, by 
peculiar symbols/ The purpose of this esay was to question some 
remarks on the subject of acent and quantity, by Lord Monboddo, 
in his ' Origin and progress of language: 7 and was executed, in 
part, under the form of an argumentative corespondence between 
this Author and Mr. Steele. 

Future times may smile at some of the efects of clasical pur- 
suits, if ever toldj a free inquirer had considerable dificulty, in 
convincing an acomplished scholar, at the end of the eighteenth 
century, that the English language has those atributes of Acent 
and Quantity, suposed to belong exclusively to the Latin and the 
Greek : for this was the subject of controversy. Mr. Steele has 
therefore given a notation of the time of the voice; and shown 
that the same continuous slide employed on sylables of the Greek 
language, is necesarily heard on those of his own. If he designed 
to inquire into the forms and varieties of that slide, he was un- 
sucesful. For with an exception of his indefinite representations 
of some new forms of the circumflex or turn, he made no advances 
beyond the few but elementary facts of the ancients: and only in 
one or two instances obscurely perceved, what' in other cases, they 
entirely overlooked^ the natural conection between diferent states 
of the mind, and their apropriate vocal signs. In atempting to 
delineate the melody of speech, he adopted those vague or un- 
founded opinions of the Greeks, that the vocal slides are somehow 
made thru enharmonic intervals^ by which they may have intended 
to denote some minute interval in the sliding concrete^ and that 
three tones and a half is the measure of the acentual rise and fall 
in ordinary discourse. The influence of these delusions, together 
with his belief in some notional analogies between certain parts of 
the system of music, and the melody of speech, rendered his short 



INTRODUCTION. 51 

acount of intonation, meager, confused, and eroneous. He had 
two diferent objects in view. The first, to prove to his oponent, 
that the acentual Slide, and Quantity both belong esentialy to 
English speech. This he briefly did ; without considering their 
broad and important aplication, and their efects. The second, and 
principal, was to describe an original system of Rythmic Notation, 
by which the subjects of Quantity, of stresful emphasis, and of 
pause may be represented to a pupil ; and the habit of atention 
fixed on these important points in the art of reading. 

Mr. Steele shows by his work, that he posesed nicety of ear, a 
knowledge of the science and practice of music, together with an 
originality and independence of mind, created by observation and 
reflection ; powers suficient when not restrained or perverted, to 
have developed the whole philosophy of speech. 

Had he not begun and continued his investigation thru the dis- 
tracting means of controversy ; had not his atention been drawn 
into the desultory course of responsive argument ; nor his courtesy 
towards the opinions of others partially betrayed him to their au- 
thority ; had he not asumed as identical, those facts of music and 
of speech, which his own closer observation would have proved to 
be diferent ; and above all, had he not looked back to a suposed 
science, in the writings of the Greeks, and to the dark confusion 
of comentators upon them, but in self-superiority to this obstruc- 
tive influence, kept his ful-suficient and undeviating ear on Nature, 
she would at last have led him up to light. 

Mr. Sheridan is well known by his discriminating investigation 
of the Art of reading ; and tho he improved both the detail and 
method of his subject, in the departments of pronunciation, em- 
phasis, and pause, he made no analysis of intonation. A regreted 
omision ! The more so from the certainty, that if this topic had 
receved his atention, his mteligence and industry would have shed 
much light of explanation upon it. 

Mr. Walker, who has writen usefully on Rhetoric and Philology, 
devotes a portion of his work to the subject of the rise and fall of 
the voice, in its aplication to the emphatic sylables of a sentence : 
and reiterates his claims to originality on this subject. Mr. 
Walker may have been the first to aply the confused and conjec- 
tural system of ancient Acent to a modern language ; but he has 



52 INTRODUCTION. 

scarcely gone beyond the limited analysis, furnished by its history. 
The Greek writers on music had a discriminative knowledge of the 
rise, fall, and circumflex turn of speech. Aristoxenus the philoso- 
pher, a pupil of Aristotle, discovered, or first described, that pecu- 
liar rise and fall of sound by a continuous progresion, which 
distinguishes the vocal slid, from the sJciping transition on musical 
instruments. 

Mr. Walker does triumphantly claim the discovery of the in- 
verted circumflex acent,- or the downward-and-upward continued 
movement. Yet, if it is corectly infered from the dates of pub- 
lication, and from Mr. Walker's rather derisive alusion to Mr. 
Steele's essay, that the latter author preceded him 3 he mit have 
found, in Mr. Steele's gravo-acute acent, proof of a previous 
knowledge of his newly-found function of the voice. 

Mr. Walker was a celebrated elocutionist, and may have known 
how to manage his intonation ; but in his atempt to delineate its 
forms, he is even less definite than Mr. Steele. His insinuation 
that speech and music, each being varied uses of the same tunable 
constituents, should not be ilustrated by some analogous notation^ 
and his own eroneous diagrams of the progress of pitch, are in- 
stances of a want of reflection and of obtusenes of ear, quite rep- 
rehensible in one, who, without compulsion, should undertake to 
investigate the relationships of sound. 

I have stated the amount, and the sources, of what has been 
heretofore known of the functions of speech. In a general view, it 
apears : That the number, the kinds, and the organic causes of the 
Alphabetic Elements have long been recorded, with acurate detail ; 
That Quantity or the Time of sylabic uterance, together with the 
subject of Pause, had been distinguished only by a few indefinite 
terms, until Mr. Steele, with discriminative perception, aplied to 
speech some of the principles and symbols of musical notation; 
That Acent or the means of distinguishing a sylable by stres or 
intensity of voice, has been definitely described in English pronun- 
ciation, both as to its place and degrees ; That this sylabic stress, 
tho attentively regarded in the grammatical institute of the Greeks, 
is yet in their records, so confounded with some notion of the rising 
and the falling slid, and the circumflex turn of the voice, that we 
are left altogether in doubt, as to their systematic and separate use 



INTRODUCTION. 53 

of these diferent functions ; That Emphasis, when restricted to the 
purpose of making one or more words conspicuous, by force or in- 
tensity, has long been a subject of rhetorical atention; Mr. Walker 
being the first among modern Elocutionists, who atempted, under 
the terms upward and downward slide, to conect any view of In- 
tonation with it : And finaly, that the analysis of Intonation has 
hardly been extended beyond the recorded knowledge of the 
ancients. Greek and Roman writers tell us of the acute, grave, 
and circumflex movements ; and these, with the newly described 
inverted-circumflex, have, at a recent date, by Mr. Steele and Mr. 
Walker, first been vaguely regarded, in English speech. 

These four general heads of intonation are truly drawn from 
nature ; yet, with the present indefinite meaning of their terms, 
they are useles for practical instruction, and no less imperfectly 
designate the measurable modifications of speech, than the four 
cardinal terms of the compas describe all the points, distances, 
and contents of space. 

The discovery of the above mentioned distinctions in intonation, 
which must justly form the outline of all nicer discrimination, was 
the result of philosophical inquiry. A much more abundant, but 
not more precise nomenclature has been derived from criticism. 
The folowing phrases are extracted from a description of Mr. Gar- 
rick's maner of reading the Church-service, and have an especial 
reference to the Intonation of his voice : i Even tenor of smooth 
regular delivery/ i Fervent tone/ i Sincerity of devotional ex- 
presion/ ' Repentant tone/ i Reverential tone/ • Evennes of voice/ 
i Tone of solemn dignity/ \ Of suplication/ ' Of sorow, and con- 
trition/ 

Those who know what constitutes acuracy of language, must 
admit that such atempts to name the means of vocal expresion, 
have no more claim to the title of inteligible description, than be- 
longs to the rambling signification of vulgar nomenclature. We 
seem not to be aware, that no describable perceptions of sound are 
conected with such comon phrases of criticism, until required to 
ilustrate them by some definite forms of intonation. ' Grandeur 
of feeling/ says a writer, in laying down the rules of elocution, 
1 should be expresed with pomp and magnificence of tone / as if 
the words, pomp and magnificence were specifications of percepti- 



54 INTRODUCTION. 

ble ' tones ^ or explanatory and definite terms for some well-known 
forms and uses of the voice. But as these words describe no audi- 
ble function, they can in this case denote indefinite*ly, only a state 
of mind; and are therefore convertible with the term, ' grandeur 
of feeling/ which denotes indefinitely only a state of mind. We 
may therefore presume, from their having no reference to assign- 
able conditions of the voicej if the writer had been, conversely 
asked, how ' pomp and magnificence of feeling ' should be expresed, 
he would, with no more precision, have answered j 'by grandeur 
of tone/ Such rules for the expresion of speech, tho abounding 
in our systems of elocution, are resolvable, into words, with no ex- 
planatory meaning. JSTor can any weight of authority give them 
the power of description ; since the terms ' sorowful expression/ 
and 'tone of solemn dignity/ in the precepts of an acomplished 
Elocutionist, have no more signification as to the modes, forms, 
degrees, and varieties of pitch, time, and force of voice, than those 
of 'fine-turned cadence/ and 'chaste modulation/ in the idle criti- 
cism of a daily gazette. 

All arts and sciences apear under two diferent conditions. They 
may be described by terms of vague signification, suited to the 
limited knoAvledge and feeble senses of the ignorant, in every caste 
of society. Those who view them under this condition, in vainly 
pretending to discriminate, express only their thotless approbation. 
Again, they may be shown in definite delineation, by a language 
of unchangeable meanings and independently of the perversions, 
which slender ability, natural temper, or momentary humor may 
create. He who thus surveys an art, will in expressing his apro- 
bation, always reflect and discriminate. 

Some branches of the art of speaking are even at this late 
period scarcely removed from the first of these conditions. This 
however, will not seem strange, when we for a moment refer to 
its cause. There is no growth of intelect from a metaphysical 
nothings no 'equivocal generation ' in knowledge. It always 
springs from the obvious seeds of itself; and these are first 
planted in the mind, by definite perceptions and explanatory 
terms. But the elementary forms of Intonation are an esential 
constituent of expresive speech; and tho constantly heard, have 
never been named : the studious inquirer has therefore wanted a 



INTRODUCTION. 55 

definite language for those purposes of the voice, which he must 
have always obscurely perceved. The fulness of nomenclature in 
art is directly proportional to the degree of its improvement j and 
the acuracy of its terms insures the precision of its systematic 
rules. The few and indeterminate designations of the modes of 
the voice in Reading, compared with the number and acuracy of 
the terms in Music, imply the diferent maner in which each has 
been cultivated. The inquirers into the subject of speech have 
unproductively given up their opinions to authority, and their 
pens to quotation. The musician has devoted his ear to observa- 
tion and experiment, and in their path has persisted onward to 
succes. The words, quick, slow, long, short, loud, soft, rise, fall, 
and turn, indefinite as they are, include nearly all the discrimina- 
tive terms of Elocution. How far they fall short of an enumera- 
tion of every precise and elegant use of the voice, and how fairly 
the cause of the vague and limited condition of our knowledge is 
here represented, shall be determined on a retrospective view by 
an age to come, when the ear will have made deliberate examina- 
tion. 

A conviction of the imperfect state of our knowledge in certain 
branches of the Art of Speaking, first led the Author to the en- 
suing investigation ; and a hope that others rait asist in the com- 
pletion of a desirable measurement and method of the voice, 
induced him to set the present publication before them. If it 
shud not furnish a plan for the future establishment of the prin- 
ciples of Intonation, Time, and Force j he must still continue to 
beleve, without controversy, in the atainable and practical benefits 
of such a work. 

I canot, at this timej when an unsteady Popularity, in disturb- 
ing everything else, has presumed to be the directive Master of 
Taste j withhold a few remarks on the importance of general prin- 
ciples, in the Fine Arts ; as these principles are not only the sure 
Foundation and the Preservative defense of a steadfast Intelectual 
Taste, distinguished from a Taste of changeable preferences, and 
capricej but are at the same time, the most efective means for 
exalting it. And altho the entire want of such principles or rules 
in the use of Intonation, has unecesarily led to the belief; they 
canot be instituted, it will be shown in the folowing esayj they 



56 INTRODUCTION. 

are not only as esential but likewise as atainable in Elocution, as 
in any other art which elegantly employs the observation and 
reflection of the intelect. 

Those persons who receve the highest intelectual enjoyment 
from the works of art, know well, that its fulness and durability 
are chiefly derived from that power of broad and exact discern- 
ment, which is acquired by experience, and time, and by a dis- 
ciplined inquiry into the rules of taste that direct the production. 
A knowledge of these rules constitutes the executive- facility of 
the artist, and gives delight to him who contemplates the work. 
Whatever the physical susceptibility may be, it is not the ini- 
presion of form, or color, or sound, pasively receved by the eye 
or ear, that creates an enlightened perception ^of the objects of the 
fine arts. Delicate organization, call it ' Genius ' here if you 
please, is essential to this perception ; still it is the united activity 
of the senses and the brain, in the work of observation and com- 
parison, together with the development of new, and the aplication 
of pre-established rulesj which by unfolding the latent tendencies 
of this physical susceptibility, constitutes the extended, the dis- 
criminative, and the enduring pleasure of taste. And if there is 
yet to be discovered some surpasing eficacy of art, for a surpasing 
intelectual delight, it can never be acomplished, except by the 
influence of comprehensive and still acumulating precepts ; derived 
from the study of nature it is true, but aplied to represent her 
chosen, corected, and combined individualities ; and thereby, under 
the human eye at least, to generalize and exalt even that Nature, 
in form if not in purpose, above herself. 

Besides the sources of contemplative pleasure, and the means of 
preservation and improvement in an art, aforded by principles, 
their influence is operative after a temporary decline, or total loss 
of its practice. They efect a speedy restoration when evil example 
has passed away, or a tradition of former excelence has produced 
a desire for its revival. The definite description of elementary 
constituents, and the statement of the rule of their use, are par- 
ticularly necesary in the art of speaking-well; since its pasing 
exercise leaves no record of itself. The works of art, without an 
explanation of their meaning and use, are often as deep an enigma, 
as the works of nature; and a long course of observation is in 



INTRODUCTION. 57 

each case equaly required, to note and class their phenomena, and 
to discover their formal, their efficient, and their final causes. 

Altho the ancients have left us abundant eulogistic anecdotes on 
the art of Painting, they have done little more than alude to those 
principles of composition, design, shaded light, and coloring, by 
which their great masters improved upon nature, while they pro- 
fesed to imitate her ; and the want of a knowledge of these, even 
with the benefits of patronage, was one cause of the delay of at 
least two centuries, in the gradual progres of the art to its full 
restoration, in modern Europe. Stories of the graces of ancient 
Design were revolved in the minds of the image-makers of Italy, 
and of the decorators of cloisters, like the problems of the me- 
chanical wonders of Archimedes, that were not to be solved by 
record or tradition.* 

Ancient architecture has, by means of the fragments of its ruins, 
been revived in modern days, to a degree atainable thru precision 
of measurement ; and under this view, some of its remains have 
furnished the highest examples for imitation. Delicate observa- 
tion, aided by a refined taste in other arts, is yet required, to 
retreve the knowledge of those principles which must have directed 
the taste of the Greeks ; but of which Yitruvius gave only an 
imperfect sketch, while compiling a popular book for Builders ; 
and which Pausanias, in his hurried tour, forgot to set down, as 
the proper preface to his Inventory of temples. 

If the Greek writers on music had not furnished us with a 
knowledge of the ancient Scales, and of the principles that 
directed their construction and uses, the records of Choragic 
monuments and the acounts of the Odeum, wud have only ex- 
cited our wonder at the extraordinary power of instrumental 
sound. The inventive mind of Guido, instead of completing the 
modern scale, might have only laid its foundation, by fixing a 
single chord acros a shell, and the finished system of modern har- 
mony mit now have been but just begun. 

Such is the view we take of arts directed by principles, or pre- 

* See an acount of the above new term, shaded light, in the twenty-fifth 
Article of the thirty-sixth Section, under the head of Painting, in the ' Nat- 
ural History of the lntelect;' since from the conection of the mind and the 
voice, I supose the inquiring Reader to poses the two Works that describe it. 

5 



58 INTRODUCTION. 

cepts colected from experience, for designing, executing, preserving, 
and reviving the great and desirable works of usefulness and 
taste : precepts acumulated by the eforts of close and industrious 
observation, looking to the eventual aid of Time ; who, himself 
never working impatiently, becomes the great wonder-worker of 
all intelectual, as well as of all physical creation. 

The folowing essay exhibits an atempt to describe the constituents 
of speech, and the principles of their aplication, with a precision 
that may enable criticism to be systematic and instructive^ thereby 
afording readers at other times and places, the means of compre- 
hending its discriminations. 

Discusions on the subject of standard principles, in some of the 
arts, have always involved the question of their origin; and nature 
has generaly been asumed as the source. 

Nature afords two conditions of her governing rules, for rules 
are only directive principles. In one, she is taken as the model 
for exact imitation, in those branches of art which profes to copy 
her full and actual detailsj exemplified by the faultles and ex- 
quisite artistic delineations, in the various departments of Natural 
History, and as in every science. Here individual nature is the 
standard ; and here the excelence of art consists, in the whole- 
truth of the resemblance, without the least superfluous ideal-touch. 
In the other, or in the departments of Taste, where it is the pur- 
pose to exalt its creations, by a mental corecting of what to our eye, 
apears to be the exceptionable details of nature, or by a selection 
from her scatered constituents of beautyj the rule is the result of 
a congenial knowledge in the art, exhibited in strong similarity 
among persons of equal instinct and cultivation : which, if it does 
not prove conformity in taste to be the development of an invari- 
able law of nature, in the human mind, at least afords education 
the means of tracing the causes of beauty and deformity ; and of 
framing a satisfactory and enduring system of laws for itself. 

The uses of the voice have not yet been brot under either of 
these conditions. For the first ; Nature or that unenlightened, or 
rather deformed instinct comonly called natural speech, does not 
aford examples of individual excelence; and has perhaps never 
furnished a single instance, worthy in all respects to be copied. 
For the second condition ; from the want of a full knowledge and 



INTKODUCTION. 59 

definite nomenclature of the constituents of speech, and of careful 
experiments on the vocal signs of thot and pasionj there has never 
been that clear perception of the characteristic causes of beauty 
and deformity, which would warant the institution of a standard, 
either by the method of selection, or by that of the exalting power 
of creative thot. The highest achievements in statuary, painting, 
and the landscape, consist of those forms and compositions, never 
perhaps found singly-existent, or variously combined in nature ; 
but which in the estimation of Cultivated Taste, and its perfecting 
agency, may far surpas her individual productions. 

The folowing analytic history of the human voice will enable 
an Elocutionist of any nation, to frame a didactic system for his 
own native and familiar speech. Since it shows that the vocal 
signs of expresion have a universality, coexistent with the prev- 
alence of thot and passion ; and that a gramar of elocution, like 
that of music, must be one and the same for the whole family of 
man. He will also find the outline of a system of principles and 
practice, I have ventured to propose, on a survey of those proper- 
ties of uterance, which seem to me, acomodated to the taste of the 
cultivated ear ; but which being rarely, if ever acomplished by the 
human voicej tho still within the reach of natural science^ must, 
until so physicaly acomplished, be caled, in analogy with the 
highest character of the above named arts, the Ideal Beauty of 
speech. Beleving, that no one age or nation has yet been able to 
prove its claim to superiority in the Art of speaking, I have pre- 
sumed to make a universal aplication of the system of the folow- 
ing Work, on the ground, of the unity of the laws of nature, and 
of the universality of the fixed and describable relations between 
the states of thot and of pasion, and the vocal signs r which re- 
spectively denote them. 

This undertaking is directly oposed to a vulgar error. The 
inscrutable character, as it is afirmed, and the suposed infinity, of 
the vocal movements, together with the rapid course and perpetual 
variation of uterance, are considered as insuperable obstacles to a 
precise description of the detail and system of the speaking voice. 
This objection will be hereafter answered, otherwise than by con- 
tentious argument. But we may here, only askj if there is no 
other oportunity to count the radii of a wheel than in the race ; or 



60 INTRODUCTION. 

to number and describe the individuals of a herd, except in the 
promiscuous mingling of their flight. Music, with its infinitude 
of details, must still have been a mystery, could the knowledge of 
its intervals and its time have been caught-up, only from the mul- 
tiplied combinations and rapid execution of the orchestra. The 
acuracy of mathematical calculation, joined with the sober patience 
of the ear over a deliberate practice on its constituents^ has not 
had more succes in disclosing the system of this beautiful and 
luminous science, than a similar watchfulnes over the deliberate 
movements of speech will afford, for designating the hitherto un- 
recorded phenomena of the voice. If there is any purpose in the 
works of nature, or any ordained eficiency of means to complete 
the circle of her designs, we shall find, on the development of her 
vocal system, some uniform and apropriate rulesj within the pale 
of which the voice should be variously exercised, to give light to 
the intelect and pleasure to the ear. 

The acurate sciences, and the fine arts, without our having re- 
gard to the simplicity of those Primary Causes, in the mind, which 
the more deeply they are viewed, the more we may perceve only 
a varied unity in their efectsj have been contrasted by the kinds, 
rather than as it should be, by the degrees of their claims to truth. 
The careles argument asumes, that taste is merely a wavering thot, 
or ' feeling ' among mankind ; and has no rule for the co-perception 
of grandeur, grace, and beauty, in the selected, or exalted uses of 
form, color, and sound. This asumption is one of the delusions of 
ignorance. But if there is a similar method of perception among 
persons of equal taste and education, it must be founded on some 
general principle of the cultivated intelect. The agreement there- 
fore, arising from the equalizing law of knowledge, gives a char- 
acter to the principles of taste, analogous at least to that, which by 
a like constitutional law of the mind, in a general consent on the 
subject of physical relationships j forms the full and unquestiona- 
ble truth of the acurate sciences. Under this view of the founda- 
tion of the principles of the fine arts, we must perceve at last the 
measure of their truth, as that of the truth of the exact sciences, in 
the agreement of those who cultivate them. He who knows, that 
all men of education find the same properties in a circle, may 
learn by a similar perception, that if the mind should ever be 



INTRODUCTION. 61 

cleared of its human rubbishy particular excelencies of the painter, 
poet, architect, orator, statuary, composer, landscape improver, and 
actor, will reach the spring of congenial perception, in those who 
observe and reflect upon their works, and spread-abroad a varied 
stream of ever-during aprobation. The claim to acuracy of knowl- 
edge is the inherent right of every art. It is not consistent with 
the law of nature, that Truth, upon her simple and impartial seat 
within the mind should have her favorites ; let all be equaly thot- 
free, strict, and studious, and she will reward them all alike. 
What has been, in the perverse yet often repentant human intel- 
ect, may be; and we learn from the history of the so-caled saga- 
cious Greek;* who well knew the fixed and useful truths of Ge- 
ometry i that those subjects of Natural philosophy, which by a 
'New Organ ' of the mind, are now reduced to the clearnes of ex- 
perimental knowledge, and taught to the school-boy j were by that 
very Greek, regarded as too fleeting and disputable, to be a mater 
for observative science, or even to employ the fleeting logic of his 
endles metaphysical disputations. 

Though future times may possibly break down the mischevous 
distinction, which asigns a diferent kind of thot to different depart- 
ments of inquiry ; and may subject all nature and art, equaly, to 
the simple and suficient proces of Observation and Clarification; 
still it may seem to the present age, that between the perception of 
beauty in the arts, and of the ratios of mathematical quantity, there 
is little similarity. But, aside from metaphysical sophistry, there 
can be no other ground for an acknowledged certainty, in our per- 
ceptions of the relationships of magnitude and number, than the 
undivided and unchanging perceptions and belief, of those who 
sagaciously inquire into them. They agree upon themj because 
they all pursue a like conected train of exact observation, or ' rea- 
soning ' as this train is usually caledj being therein hapily sepa- 
rated from the world of wranglers, who taking no part or interest 
in a mathematical truth they canot overthrow, do not vexatiously 
disturb their agreement ; again, because they all employ the same 
precision of terms for these relationships, and are more dispassionate 
in their investigations, than we are acustomed to be, on the many 
subjects that involve the distractions of our pride, and vanity, 
and emulation ; because they so closely observe the sucesions, and 



62 INTRODUCTION. 

so strictly, by the comanding symbols of analysis, contemplate the 
bearing of premises embraced in a conclusion ; and finally, not be- 
cause they employ on the exact sciences, a diferent mental methodj 
for the mind, apart from its endles ways in popular and scholastic 
fiction, has only one methodj but because the ambitious and 
worldly atractions of other subjects of knowledge, have left the 
development of these sciences, together with the aplication of the 
above described Causes of their succes, to the retired and self-con- 
tented observation and reflection of earnest, exact, and persevering 
inquirers. It is trifling to urge, that the properties of a Conic 
Section are eternal entities of ' purely Transcendental intelect/ 
quite independent of our acidental and physical perception of 
them, and that they would still exist as truths, even if they might 
never be demonstrated. Truth is a comparative term, uncaled 
for by Nature, who has no relative erors within herself, and was 
only invented for the uses of a disputatious and imperfectly-per- 
cipient being. Besides, the question before us is of knowledge, 
not of metaphysical notions. Otherwise we might, with like proof 
of an abstract and eternal rule of taste, asert that the proportions 
of a Greek column exist, unhewn and unseen in the quary ; like 
that transcendental conceit of old, which declared^ the Venus of 
Gnidos was not the work of Praxiteles ; Nature herself having 
concreted within the marble, the boundary but hiden surface of its 
beauty ; the artist, when the statue came to light, having only 
produced the fragments of his chisel, and the dust of his file. I 
speak here against an unlimited asertion of the variablenes of the 
thotful and efective principles of taste, and not with the presump- 
tion, at this time, even to feign for them, a comparison with any 
established principle of the exact sciences. But there are no 
degrees in truth ; therefore, every mathematical purpose which 
remains without fulfilment by demonstration, must submit to its 
clasification with what are called the indefinite precepts of the 
Esthetic Arts, hapily distinguished from them, in being free from 
the interference of Ignorance and Conceit. And yet it may be re- 
marked, in anticipation of what will be shown hereafter, that the 
Art of Speech, in three of its important modes j namely, Time, 
with its measurable momentsj Intonation, with its measurable in- 
tervalsj and Force, with its measurable degreesj if not admissible 



INTRODUCTION. 63 

within the pale of exact calculation, is yet upon its border ; and 
when, by future cultivation, it shall take its destined place among 
the esthetic arts, it will be found, at least beside Architecture and 
Music, those beautiful combinations of taste, with mathematical 
truthj if indeed, from its principles of intonation being broadly 
and strictly founded in nature, it may not claim to be before 
them. 

Controversies on points involving the leading principles of taste, 
are generaly, contentions of the ignorant with artists, or with one 
another; and rarely to any great degree, of the diferences of edu- 
cated and inteligent artists among themselves. If the later are 
unable to extend the authority, and the benefits of their princi- 
ples, over the presumptuous part of the multitude^ it does not 
provej some system of principles may not prevail in the arts, or 
that artists do not enjoy the delightful efects of it ; but seems to 
implyj there is more asuming vanity in the world than felowship 
in knowledge. Silence, or modest inquiry is the duty of the igno- 
rant ; and where neither is performed j Nature apears in their case, 
to have departed from her plan in animal creation, by not with- 
holding from them the litigious faculty of speech. 

These differences canot of themselves, call in question the au- 
thority of principles in the arts. Most of the phenomena of cause 
and efect in Natural Philosophy, are as obvious as proofs of the 
properties of curves, by the most exact calculus. Still, pretenders in 
every condition of life are constantly trespassing within the bounds 
of this science, by the absurdity of their reasonings with each other 
on points of physical knowledge. Knaves exhibit their schemes for 
producing Perpetual Motion ; and the whole host of learned and 
unlearned credulity canot change the influence of those principles, 
which as yet, have determined the mechanical imposibility. 

There is a wholesome kind of conviction in the mind of fools, 
which forces them to confes their want of knowledge in mathe- 
matics, if they have not studied that science. But taste, say they, 
is i natural/ therefore every one should have his own. It is true, 
every one knows what will please himself in his ignorance ; the 
wise alone* know what will please the inteligent in their education.' 

In thus advocating the necesity of precepts for the promotion, 
government, defense, and restoration of taste, I deprecate any 



64 INTRODUCTION. 

inference that, by furnishing available tho even conventional 
rules for an art, these precepts tend to confine it to an unalterable 
standard. Established principles are not as the barier of a flood, 
which in protecting from inroad, sometimes restrictively prevents 
the oportunities of further conquestj but as the guide and escort 
of the arts, to acquisitions of wider glory. With an exception 
of that often misused principle, Variety j their influence over the 
arts has always insured their advancement, and accompanied their 
exaltation. The ambitious search after Novelty, which under 
another name, too often means Variety in the sucesions of fashion 
and of schools^ has, under the restless designs of vanity, and the 
influence of unguarded patronage, ruined more arts than all the 
destructive ignorance of the barbarian. 

It will perhaps be saidj we learn from experience, that a high 
advancement in the arts may lead to perversion from their original 
purpose. This has sometimes been the case. By increasing the 
dificulties of musical execution, in the voice and on instruments, 
this art is, by the singularities of mechanical skill, the varied 
tricks of interest and ambition, and the waywardnes of undis- 
cerning patronage, frequently exercised to the indifference or dis- 
gust of those, whose aprobation would be durable; and to the 
thotles satisfaction of those, whom the united caprice of ignorance 
and fashion may urge equaly to support or to destroy. 

A full knowledge of the principles and practice of an art, en- 
ables an industrious and aspiring votary to aproach perfection ; 
while idle folowers are contented with the defaults of imitation. 
With most men, the labor of the mind, equaly with that of the 
body, ceases with the removal of its necessity; and a shameles 
dependence on the intelectual alms of others, is not less comon, 
than the populous growth of pauperism upon the increasing 
provisions of benevolence. The unbounded distributions of wise 
originality prompt to excuses for indolence, and to claims for 
sucor, and the empire itself of the art falls at last, under the com- 
piling insurrection and anarchy of its former servile dependents. 

But it may be asked by those who think, elocution canot be 

* taught* What relation do these methodic principles of taste, bear 

to the spontaneous, and self-directing uses of speech ? And why 

should we seek the asistance of rules, when the instinct of thot 



INTRODUCTION. 65 

and pasion uneringly efect all their vocal purposes ? For it is 
the belief of those who canot perceve the aplication of analysis 
and precept to Elocution, that its power consists in the wonder- 
working of t genius/ and in proprieties and * graces beyond the 
reach of art/ So seem the plainest services of arithmetic to a 
savage ; and so, to the slave, seem all the ways of music which 
modern art has so acurately pened, as to time, and tune, and 
momentary grace. Ignorance knows not what has been done; 
indolence thinks nothing can be done ; and both uniting, borow 
from the abused eloquence of poetry, an aphorism to justify supine- 
ness of inquiry. 

It is readily admited of elocution as of the other esthetic arts, 
that a full analysis of its constituents, together with the establish- 
ment of a system of principles will not in the present benighted 
state of the mind, always exempt it from abuse or ruin. I canot 
therefore, refrain from recomending that intelectual, and enlarging 
cultivation of the instinct of the voice, which must insure the 
highest satisfaction, while the art remains uncorupted; and which, 
by the description of its constituents and method, will aford the 
best means for any needed restoration. 

Perhaps it is not going too far, to sayj the art of speaking, as 
ordained by nature, and defended as well as directed by the adop- 
tion and extension of her ascertained rules, does not consist of 
those purposes and means, that are liable, under an ambitious love 
of change, to end in coruption. Some of the fine arts may receve 
the adition of Ornament, properly so caled ; which in its exces, 
is alas, too often the precursor of their ruin; and which, holding 
but a separate relationship to its subject or principal, leaves a re- 
fined and guarded taste to order the degree of its aplication, or its 
total exclusion. The art of speaking is subject to no such con- 
ditions. The representation of thot, and of pasion by their re- 
spective vocal-signs, is fixed in their amenity by an unalterable 
instinctj or if this is not granted, by the satisfactory decisions of 
universal convention. With this ordained constitution or habit 
of the voice, all adition to the numbered signs of its language is 
redundancy, and all misplaced uterance is afectation. 

The following history of the voice is adresed especialy to those 
who pursue science with atention and perseverancej who prefer its 



66 INTRODUCTION. 

useful acuracy, to its ostentationj who are satisfied with the ' few, 
but fit audience/ and who know, from their own hapy experience, 
that exactnes of knowledge is the bright felicity of intelect. To 
inquirers of this character, it need not be said 3 even the rapid flight 
of speech may be more easily folowed, when the general principles 
that direct it have become familiar. The hesitation of the ear will 
be prompted by the mind, and we shall more readily discern what 
is, by knowing what ought to be. 

After the preceding representation of our limited knowledge of 
the functions of the voice, and upon the promises of a more ex- 
tended and precise analysis, the Reader must be prepared to find 
in the following essay, a new, but I hope not a distracting nomen- 
clature. When unamed aditions are made to the system and detail 
of an art, terms must be invented for them ; and even when its 
known phenomena are exhibited under varied relationships, the 
purpose of description is less perplexed by the novelty of terms, 
than by an atempt to give another application or meaning to former 
names. 

Many of the varieties of pitch being acurately designated and 
clearly aranged in musicj a part of its nomenclature is, in this 
esay, transfered to the description of speech ; and whenever a lan- 
guage has been purposely framed, I have endeavored to make it, 
by direct or metaphorical use, purely explanatory of the vocal 
functions. 

Although I have gone deeply into the philosophical history of 
speech, and have spared no pains in ilustrating whatever might 
from its novelty, be otherwise obscurej I have not pretended to 
make specific aplication of all the principles here laid down, to 
every case of the reading and speaking voice. As the design of 
this esay is, to promulgate a new Institute of Elocution, I have 
proposed to acomodate the full requisitions of the subject, to the 
limitation of my time, by brief generalities of explanation and of 
method ; which, in holding the light of instruction broadly, yet 
distinctly, over the whole, may enable others to perceve the rela- 
tionship of the parts; and with the closer and more particular 
hand of detail, to unite in purpose for the completion of the work. 
The full development of an art, in all its practical bearings, can 
be efected only by the united labor of many, and of their lives. 



INTRODUCTION. » 67 

Here is the result of the leisure of about three years, snatched 
from the daily duty of extensive profesional ocupation. If in 
discharging the duties of that profesion, I have selected from its 
physiological department, a subject of inquiry which gives its ulti- 
mate services in another art, I have not therein overlooked the 
bounteous acts of Nature, who never is ungrateful to the eyes that 
watch her, and still may have her secrets in the human frame, yet 
to be told for the instruction, health, or hapiness of man; the 
future search after which, may not be without sucesj and will not 
be, without the satisfaction experienced in conducting these ofered 
scrutinies of the tongue and ear. 

The reception which may await the folowing Work, can be of 
no important interest to me. By taking care to antedate any ex- 
pected season of its penalties and rewards, I have already found 
them in the varied perplexity and pleasure of its acomplishment. 
I leave it therefore for the service of him, who may in future 
desire to read the natural history of his voice. The system here 
presented will satisfy much of his curiosity; for I feel asured, by 
the result of the rigid method of observation employed thruout 
the inquiry, that if science should ever come to one consent on 
this point, it will not difer esentialy from the ensuing record. The 
world has long asked for light on this subject. It may not choose 
to acept it now ; but having idly sufered its own oportunity for 
observation to go by, it must, under any capricious postponement, 
at last receve it here. 

Sir Joshua Reynolds has a prety thot, on the labors of ambition 
and the choice of fame. I do not remember his words exactly ; 
but he figures the present age and posterity as rivals, and those 
who are favored by the one, as being outcasts from the other. 
This condition, while it alows a full but transient satisfaction to 
the zeal which works only for a present reward, does not exclude 
all prospect from those who are contented in the anticipation of 
defered succes. Truth, whose first steps shud be always vigorous 
and alone, is often obliged to lean for suport and progres on the 
arm of Time ; who then only, when suporting her, seems to have 
laid aside his wings. 

Philadelphia, January, 1827. 



THE 



PHILOSOPHY 



OF 



THE HUMAN YOICE, 



SECTION I. 

Of the general Divisions of Vocal Sound : with a more particular 
acount of its Pitch. 

All the constituents of the human voice, may be refered to the 
five folowing modes : 

VOCAHLITY, 

FORCE, 

TIME, 

ABRUPTNESS, 

PITCH. 

The detail of these five modes, and of the multiplied combi- 
nation of their several forms, degrees, and varieties, includes the 
enumeration of all the Articulating and the Expresive powers of 
speech. 

The extension of knowledge calls for an aditional nomenclature ; 
and new facts and principles on the subject of the voice, will require 
new terms for the description and arangement of them. It is 
therefore proper to show, how far comon nomenclature fulfils the 
purpose of explanation and division; and to provide the means 
by which an obvious deficiency may be suplied. 

The terms by which Vocality or the Kind of voice is distin- 

(69) 



70 DIVISIONS AND EXPLANATIONS. 

guished, arej rough, smooth, harsh, full, thin, musical, and some 
others of the same metaphorical character. They are suficiently 
numerous ; and as descriptive as posible, without reference to ex- 
amplar sounds. Vocalists have proposed to distinguish the singing 
voice, by its resemblance to the sound of the reed, the string, and 
the musical-glass. The sub-animals aford analogies to the diferent 
vocalities in the human voice.* 

For the specifications of Force, we use the wordsj strong, weak, 
loud, forcible, and feeble. These are indefinite in their indication, 
and without a fixed measure in degree. Music has more orderly 
and numerously distinguished the varieties of force, by its series 
of terms from Pianisimo to Fortisimo. I shall, in its proper 
place, make some new distinctions in the maner of employing this 
mode. 

Time, in speaking, is denoted by the termsj long, short, quick, 
slow, and rapid. Music has a more precise scale of relationship, 
in its order of signs from semibreve to double-demisemiquaver. 
The single or unacompanied sound of speech does not call for that 
nicety in Time, which the concerting of music requires ; yet there 
is need of more precision in designating its degrees, than the usual 
terms of prosody aford. Mr. Steele gives examples of an aplica- 
tion of the symbols of music, to the variable time of discourse. 
I shall hereafter make a division of this mode, with reference to 
English sylables, and to their employment in speech. 

I use the term Abruptnes, to signify the suden and full discharge 
of sound, as contradistinguished from its more gradual emision. 
Abruptnes is well represented by the explosive notes which may 
be executed on the bassoon, and by a quick touch on the organ. I 
have given this mode of the voice, the place and importance of a 
general head, not only as an expressive agent in speech, but because 
its characteristic explosion is peculiar, and quite distinct from the 

* In all the previous editions of this "Work, the word Quality is used for 
what is here called VocalUy. But this volume is intended to be the first part 
of the 'Natural History of the Intelect;' and as the term quality is there 
aplied exclusively to certain powers of the mindj to avoid confusion of no- 
menclature, we shall hereafter always substitute the term vocalit}' for that of 
quality ; and perhaps the former having a less general aplication than the 
latter, is more apropriate to that audible voice which is distinguished from 
whisper. 



DIVISIONS AND EXPLANATIONS. 71 

mode of Force ; with which, from its admiting degrees of intensity, 
it mit seem to be identical. 

The variations of Pitch in the speaking voice, are denoted by 
the wordsj rise and fall, high and low, acute and grave. The 
vague import and the insuficiency of this division were shown in 
our introduction : and as the folowing history of the voice makes 
especial reference to this mode, and gives a minute detail of its 
numerous forms and varieties, it is necesary to adopt a more ex- 
tended, and more definite nomenclature. 

It hapened well, for our asistance in developing the phenomena 
of speech, that most of the forms of this mode were long ago 
observed, analyzed, and named, in the proper science of music. 
Some of its uses however, in the speaking voice, are not technicaly 
known in that science. For these I have made a language. But 
most of the constituents of the musical system, tho diferently em- 
ployed, are also found in speech. It is advisable therefore, to 
adopt the musical terms for these identical functions : as they are 
already known to many, and may, in elementary grammars, be 
easily learned by all ; and as the aplication of diferent names, to 
things of esential resemblance, would counteract one great object 
of philosophy ; which is, to include all similar phenomena under 
the same verbal clases; notwithstanding they may hapen to be 
separated, by place and name, in our artificial ' arangments. In 
colecting facts from Nature, who is no respecter of position or 
title; we must take them where we find them, and class them, 
just as they agree. I shall therefore give a concise acount of the 
terms by which the forms of Pitch are distinguished in music. 

In entering upon this elementary and important explanation, 
wherein a recognition of certain diferences of sound is absolutely 
necesary for properly comprehending the subsequent parts of this 
Workj I must beg the Reader not to be discouraged by temporary 
dificulty. He who has been taught the principles of instrumental 
or of vocal music, and is able to execute acurately what is caled 
the Scale or Gamut, will recognize the following descriptions, 
without much hesitation. He who is ignorant of the relations of 
musical sounds, and of the regular scale by which they have been 
aranged, must, on this, as on so many other subjects of instruction 
which need perceptible ilustration, have recourse to a Teacher. 



72 DIVISIONS AND EXPLANATIONS. 

Pie can generaly find at hand, instrumental performers, or singing 
masters, or the clerk of some neighboring church, who will ex- 
emplify to his satisfaction all that is merely descriptive here. 

The Reader is not refered indiscriminately, to musicians and 
singers, for asistance in his aplication of the principles of music 
to the analysis of speech. The system of mechanical formality 
to which many of them have in a great degree circumscribed their 
views, together with the wasteful industry of their perpetual prac- 
tice upon dificulties has, generaly speaking, so limited their per- 
ceptive faculty, that the most striking analogy in other things, to 
points of their own art, is rarely first observed by them ; but they 
know well their daily practical rotine. To them therefore the 
Reader is refered, for exemplification of a technical nomenclature, 
which I have here, only the means of words and diagram to 
explain. 

For an elementary acount of the mathematical and mechanical 
investigation of the formal causes of Sound, the Reader is refered 
to writers on Acoustics. By them, the whole of its phenomena 
have been asigned to two general divisions: Noise, formed by 
Iregular^ and Musical or Tunable sound, by Regular, vibrations. 
It is dificult however, to draw an exact line of separation between 
these divisions; since even noise, when continued, has, however 
rude and obscure, a certain kind of musical capability, and may 
have more or less of an awkward variation in pitch. But the 
obvious diferences in the two cases, are suficient for the purposes 
of this esay ; tho we shall hardly refer to the efect of noise, ex- 
cept in designating those remarkable and deafening asaults upon 
the ear, by the combined vociferations, and instrumental crashes 
of a full-asembled Opera-Chorus. Coresponding to the above 
distinctions, I shall regard sound as Tunable, and Untunable; 
and shall consider the former, properly including vocal and instru- 
mento-musical sound. 

As Speech and Music, when regarded under the Mode of into- 
nation, are subdivisions of the General Science of Tunable Sound, 
the Reader will perceve the necesity of designating and explain- 
ing those terms which belong alike to both ; or are restrictively 
apropriated to each. 

The term Pitch is aplied to the variations of tunable sound, 



DIVISIONS AND EXPLANATIONS. 73 

between its lowest and its highest apreciable degree. This varia- 
tion between gravity and acutenes, is represented in the human 
voice, by the two extremes of hoarsenes and screaming. 

The diferent degrees of Pitch in music are denoted by what is 
caled the Scale ; the formation of which may be thus ilustrated. 

When the bow is drawn acros a string of a Violin, and the 
finger at the same time gradualy moved, with continued pressure 
on the string, from its lower attachment to any distance upwards, 
a mewing sound, if I may so call it, is heard. This mewing is 
caused by the gradual change from gravity to acutenes, thru the 
gradual shortening of the string : and as it rises by a sucesion of 
uninterupted momentary changes, each continuous or concreted, 
as it were, in its increments of time and of motion, I shall call it 
Concrete sound. This movement of pitch, on the violin, is termed 
a Slide. 

The Reader may himself exemplify this concrete sound, by 
utering the single sylable aye, as if he were asking a question 
with the expresion of earnest surprise, yet rather deliberately; 
begining at the lowest, and ending at the highest limit of his 
voice. The gradual rising-movement in this case is continuous 
or concrete : yet as the voice, and any other tunable sound may 
be continued in one uninterupted movement upon the same line 
of pitch, without rising or falingj it is to be remarked that the 
term Concrete is in this esay aplied only to an uninterupted 
movement in a rising, and in a.faling direction. 

Now, the sounds of what is called the Scale, in Music, do not 
rise in a conected or concrete movement. They are made, by 
drawing the bow, only while the finger is held stationary at cer- 
tain sucesive places on the string : showing an interuption of the 
continuous upward slide. These places are seven in number; 
their distances from each other being determined under a natural 
law, and rendered precisely measurable by a scientific rule for 
subdividing the string, which we need not consider here. Other 
sounds still ascending on the string above the places of these 
seven, may be made by a similar jnterupted progresion. But as 
the second series of seven sounds, of higher pitch, yet adjusted by 
the same rulej do each to each in order, so nearly accord in rela- 
tionship with the first seven, as seemingly to be a repetition of 
6 



74 



DIVISIONS AND EXPLANATIONS. 



# 14 



@ 13 



TX 



12 



® 11 



10 



9 9 



8J 
© 7 



O 6 



6 5 



o 

o 

3 

GO 

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t*l 



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them ; and the same being true of all the series of seven, formed 
between the lowest and the highest limit of soundj 
the whole extent of variation in acutenes and 
gravity, is regarded as consisting of the simple 
scale of seven sounds, repeated in diferent series 
or places of pitch. 

If we supose the sound at each place of the 
scale to be prolonged on the same line of pitch, 
so to distinguish it from the concrete change, it 
may be caled a level or protracted line of sound. 

On the margin, a diagram represents the places 
where we supose the string to be presed, and the 
level line of pitch to be made, when the bow is 
drawn : the black disks on the line, at the places 
of two of the repeated series of seven sounds, 
being marked numericaly: the initials T and S, 
respectively denoting the terms, Tone and Semi- 
tone, which will presently be explained. 

Upon comparing this picture with the above 
acount of the production of concrete sound, and 
suposing the concrete progresion upon the string 
to be represented by the continuous vertical line 
of the diagram, on which these numerical places 
are marked by the disksj it is obvious, that por- 
tions of the concrete must be unheard, when the 
bow is drawn, only while the finger is stationary 
at the several places. The sounds separately pro- 
duced at these places, with an omision of the inter- 
mediate concrete, I shall call Discrete Sounds. 
These, when heard sucesively in a given order, 
as represented by the diagram, constitute a Dis- 
crete Scale* 

The explanation here given of the maner of 

* This continuity and this disjunction of the line of pitch are known to most 
musicians, only under the respective names of Slide, and Skip. The terms 
concrete and discrete, as here aplied, are borowed from mathematics ; in which 
science they designate the two great generic divisions of quantity. Magni- 
tude being the concrete quantity; for the lines, surfaces, and solids which 
constitute it, have their respective parts, so to speak, concreted or united imedi- 



DIVISIONS AND EXPLANATIONS. v 75 

concrete and discrete progresions, in an upward direction aplies 
to those of the downward course, under a reverse movement of the 
gradual slide, and of the interupted sound, on the string. 

The variations of pitch on most musical instruments are discrete. 
The violin and its species derive much of their expresive power, 
from being susceptible of the concrete movement; and it is one of 
the great sources, as will be shown hereafter, of Expresion in the 
human voice. 

The several places at which we supose the sounds to be made in 
the discrete progresion, are numericaly designated in the diagram, 
and are caled the Places, Points, or Degrees of the scale. Any 
two degrees are, by relative position, called Proximate, when they 
are next to each other ; and Remote, when they include more than 
proximate degrees between them. 

The distance between any two points in the scale, either proxi- 
mate or remote, is caled an Interval. A musical interval was by 
the Greeks, denned to be a ' quantity of a certain kind, terminated 
by a graver and an acuter sound/ But for particular aplication 
to speech, it is necesary to regard that quantity as either continu- 
ous sound, or imaginary space; and to consider the efeot of the 
transit of the voice from one degree of the scale to another,, as 
constituting an interval, whether the voice is concretely heard, or 
discretely omited between them. The intervals in their proximate 
order, are measured as follows:* 

The interval, or the quantity of concrete* voice, either heard, or 
omited, between the first and the second places, numbered in the 
diagram, is called a Tone.f 

ately with each other : whereas Number is the discrete quantity ; ; the distinct 
sucesion of its constituent units being altogether diferent from, the above 
described continuity. 

The most familiar ilustration of these terms, aplied to the two kinds of 
quantity in musical sound, is furnished by the form of a lader, the side rails 
representing the concrete, and the rounds the discrete. 

* The well-informed Reader should rega"rd this general view of th&scale,. 
and the maner of its ilustration, with a thotfulnes of my design.. I omit the - 
theoretic distinction of greater and leser tone, of diatonic and chromatic senai-- 
tone, and of the major and minor scale, together with other particulars, .both.- 
melodial and harmonic^ with an intention to notice only what is preparatory 
to the description of speech. 

f The Reader must bear in mind, that the word tone in this Esay, desig- 



76 DIVISIONS AND EXPLANATIONS. 

That between the second and third is likewise a tone. 

That between the third and fourth, which apears in the diagram 
as half the space of a tone, is called a Semitone. 

The interval between the fourth and fifth, fifth and sixth, sixth 
and seventh, is each a tone ; and lastly, that between the seventh, 
and the eighth or first of the next series, a semitone. 

The intervals between the degrees of the scale, either proximate 
or remote, are designated numericaly ; the extreme degrees being in- 
clusively counted. From the second to the third, or from the sixth 
to the seventh, is the interval of a second or tone ; from the second 
to the sixth, or from the fourth to the eighth, is the interval of a 
fifth. And so of the rest; the numerical name of any interval being 
the same, when taken in an upward, or in a downward direction. 

The several discrete sounds of the scale are here named acording 
to their ordinal number; yet the first, relatively to its rising series, 
is generaly called the Key-note. Consequently, in two or more 
series of scales, the eighth sound, or Octave as it is called, of the 
preceding is always the key-note of the suceding scale ; as in the 
vertical diagram, the sound at the eighth place is the octave of 
the first series, and the key-note of the second. 

The sucesion of the seven sounds of any one series, to which the 
octave is usualy aded, is called the Natural or Diatonic Scale. It 
consists of five tones and two semitones ; the latter being the in- 
tervals between its third and fourth, and its seventh and eighth 
degrees. The scale then contains these several kinds of intervals j 
a semitone ; a second, or whole tone ; a third ; fourth ; fifth ; 
sixth ; seventh ; and octave. 

nates only a certain interval of pitch ; tho comon language aplies it alike to 
pitch, vocality, force and time ; as in the phrases ' high and low tones of the 
voice,' ' musical, rustic and silver tones ;' ' an emphatic or loud tone ;' and a 
'deliberate, quick and drawling tone.' Even music, with all its scientific 
precision, is not free from slight confusion on this point. For while it em- 
ploys the word tone, for that interval to which we restrict its use, it also desig- 
nates vocality, in the terms, ' tone of the flute,' and of other instruments, and 
the ' pure tone' of the vocalist. The French word timbre, coresponding to 
our vocality, and sometimes aplied to the voice, would, in comon English 
pronunciation, soon get into downright ship timber. Let us not be ' frightened 
at the sound ourselves have made,' but call this mode of the voice, by the 
plain English term vocality ; the timid recolecting, it comes from a word used 
by Cicero and Quinctillian. 



DIVISIONS AND EXPLANATIONS. 77 

By the diagram, the interval between the second and fourth 
degrees is numericaly a third, yet contains but one tone and a 
semitone; whereas, from the conservation of the scale, that be- 
tween the first and third degrees, still numericaly the interval of 
a third, contains two whole tones. From this diference in con- 
stituency, and extent, the former is caled a Minor Third, and the 
later a Ilajor Third. But the minor third never being used in 
corect speech, the term Third will in this Work, except where 
the minor is specified, always refer to the major interval. 

Having described the construction of the Musical Scale, I here 
advise the Reader, who may not be a musician, and who may be 
ignorant of the efect of the sounds of that scalej to ask, from some 
qualified master, an audible example of its upward and downward 
progresion, and of its several intervals. This the teacher will 
give, under that practical exercise on the scale, caled in the lan- 
guage of vocal science, Solfaing. Let the Reader studiously imi- 
tate this exemplification, and comit it to memory. If destitute of 
what is caled a musical ear, let him not think himself unable to 
discriminate those intervals, which he has now learned to be a part 
of music. In comunities where the cultivation of this art is gen- 
eral, these things are all learned, by thousands who, with their 
natural ear, would never have caut the simplest phrase of a popular 
song. And surely there is no one, into whose hands this book will 
ever fall, who can posibly avoid perceving the several diferences 
of meaning, or expresion, in the speaking voice j when he is 
adressed in the language of narative, surprise, complaint, authority, 
or interogation. Now these various expresive efects are perceptible 
to him, and acurately so, only as concrete or discrete movements 
of the voice thru certain apropriate intervals of the scale. His 
ear therefore does realy recognize these movementsj these intervals 
of the speaking scale. I only give to his mental perception and 
his tongue, their musical method and names. 

When an instructor canot be met with, the use of a well-tuned 
Piano-Forte may asist those who have no acquaintance with the 
scale. On the key-board of this instrument there is a front row 
of white keys, as they are called, and a rear row of black ones. 
A representation of their forms and positions, is given in the fol- 
owing diagram; where a portion of the Great Scale* or as its 



78 



DIVISIONS AND EXPLANATIONS. 



whole extent is caled, the Compas of the instrument; is shown ; 
the white keys being numbered above, in continuation as far as 
twenty-one ; and below, in a repeated series of seven. 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11*12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21* 



II III II III II 111 



1234567.1234567.1234567 



Any one of the series of seven white keys, of which there are 
three in the diagram^ when struck sucesively ascending from left 
to right, gives the seven discrete rising sounds of the diatonic scale. 
The black keys are set between the white ones, to divide the whole 
tones into semitones. Hence, the black keys are wanting at the 
semitonic intervals of the scale, where their purpose canot apply. 
This omision visibly separates the black keys alternately into pairs 
and triplets. 

With the foregoing explanation, the Reader can have no dificulty 
in finding a diatonic series on the white keys of a Piano-Forte ; the 
key-note or begining of the series always being next below the pair 
of black keys. Let him then, on that series which suits the pitch 
of his speaking voice, uter one of the vowels or any of its sylabic 
combinations, in unison with the instrumental sounds, both in their 
proximate sucesion of a tone, and in the wider transitions between 
remote degrees of the scalej till the whole is familiar to his ear, 
and at the call of memory. It is true, the Piano-Forte can show 
him only the discrete movements of pitch. When these are coni- 
zable, and under comand, the concrete may readily be measured by 
them. 

The level, or protracted sound at any of the places of the dis- 
crete scale, is called a Note. This term note, is to be carefuly dis- 
tinguished from that of Tone, which as before stated, signifies not 
a level line of sound, but a rising or faling interval of pitch ; and 
in this esay, is aplied, either to the concrete transit of the voice 
between any two adjoining degrees, except those bounding a semi- 



DIVISIONS AND EXPLANATIONS. v • 79 

tone, or to the amount of space between such degrees, when the 
transit is discrete. 

As the term tone is used for the interval of a second, under the 
two conditions of concrete and discrete pitch, so are the terms of 
other intervals included between remote degrees ; for the voice may 
move concretely thru these intervals, or notes may be made at 
their bounding degrees, with the omision of the concrete. Let 
us call the former of these conditions, Concrete Intervals, and the 
latter, Discrete Intervals : one being, figuratively, a rising or faling 
stream of voice, the other a voiceles space. 

The first, third, and fifth notes of the diatonic scale, to which the 
octave, as a concording repetition of the first is usualy aded, difer 
from the other notes in being more agreeable to the ear when heard 
in combination, and in imediate sucesion. The degrees in this 
order, are also more readily 'hate' by an inexperienced voice, in an 
endeavor to execute the several discrete intervals of the scale : and 
that simple instrument the Jews-harp, and some species of the 
Horn more readily yield these sucesive notes, under the faltering 
atempts of a learner. When therefore the pupil takes his leson 
on the scale, let him familiarize his ear to the sucesion of its first, 
third, fifth and octave notes; omiting the intermediate degrees. 
Frequent reference will be made hereafter, to his perceptions on 
this point. 

I give a representation of the maner in which musicians set 
their symbols for the diatonic sounds, on that linear Table caled 
the Staff. The staff consists of five horizontal and paralel lines, 
having four spaces between them. Each space and line represents 
a degree of the scale ; so that from one space or line to the next 
line or space, is a second ; and these degrees are caled conjoint or 
proximate. When the discrete movement is over a wider interval 

















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than a second, it is caled a Ship ; and the degrees are said to be 
Remote. The sucesion of the scale is here marked by disks, rising 



80 DIVISIONS AND EXPLANATIONS. 

from the lowest line to the highest space of the staff; the intervals 
of the semitones being designated by a brace. 

I have thus described the continuous or Concrete movement of 
sound ; and its discrete or interupted progresion on the diatonic 
scale. 

As there are but two semitones in the scale, it is necesary, for 
the accomodation of instruments with fixed keys, to subdivide the 
whole tones. The manner of the subdivision is here described.* 

In any series of seven notes, as the first marked in the pre- 
ceding vertical diagram of the scale, and in that of the white 
keys of the key-board, let us asume for this subdivision of whole 
tones, the Fifth, as the first or key-note of a new order. This 
with its octave, will extend to the place numbered twelve. Six 
of its places in their rising order of notes, from five to ten, will 
have right positions ; and so far, the intervals of tone and semi- 
tone will exhibit the proper sucesions of the diatonic scale. But 
the interval between the tenth and eleventh is a semitone, and 
that between the eleventh and twelfth a tone; whereas, by the 
rule for constructing the scale, the order should be reversed. For 
the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth notes marked in the diagrams, 
are respectively the sixth, seventh, and eighth of the new order, 
asumed from the fifth. When therefore the tone, or interval 
from eleven to twelve, is subdivided into two semitones, as shown 
by a cross in the vertical diagram, and by a black key below the 
star in that of the key-board j and the transit is then made from 
the tenth place, to this point of division^ two semitones, making 
one whole tone, are pased over ; the interval from this point of 
division to the twelfth is a semitone, and the constituent intervals 
of the diatonic scale in this new order, are obtained. 

To continue a subdivision of the whole tones of the scale, by 

* The Header having learned above, the form, and places of the semitone, 
it is not esential that he should strictly atend to the detailed explanation, in 
the two folowing paragraphs ; for most of it is not aplicable to speech. I say 
this, only in reference to his finding it dificult. In leting him know, there is 
a sucesion of degrees, called the Semitonic Scale, I describe the maner of its 
construction ; for with a knowledge of this, his views of the relations between 
Music and Speech will be more extended and precise. Let him then learn it, 
if not too troublesome^ being mindful to read the last two sentences of the 
second paragraph. 



DIVISIONS AXD EXPLANATIONS. 81 

rising a fifth on the previous order, wttd soon carry us beyond the 
limit of our diagrams. We must observe, that the fifth above a 
key-note, holds the same relative position in a scale, as the fourth 
below it. If then, for the key-note of a third order, we take the 
fifth above the key-note of the second order, or the fourth below it, 
they will be respectively the ninth and the second of the diagrams ; 
and these are considered the same, because they each have the 
like position of second in the two orders, of the key-board. A 
subdivision of the whole tone, between the fifteenth and sixteenth, 
on the key-board, if the fifth above is taken, or between the 
eighth and ninth if the fourth belowj will, with the subdivision 
in the preceding order, give the constituent diatonic intervals of 
this third order. And progresively, by taking the fifth above the 
key-note of the previous order, or the fourth below itj and using 
the previous subdivisions, every place of the scale may become the 
first of an order ; and every whole tone may thereby be divided, 
as shown by the black keys in the diagram of the key-board. 
This division produces a series of semitones. When therefore the 
progresion is made by them, the order of degrees is called the 
Semitonic, or more comonly the Chromatic Scale. 

It is necesary for the future history of speech, that the sucesion 
of discrete sounds should be exhibited under still more reduced 
divisions. These consist in a discrete transition over the scale, by 
intervals much smaler than a semitone; each point being as it 
were', rapidly touched by a momentary and abrupt emision of 
voice. This description may be ilustrated by the maner of that 
noise in the throat caled gurgling, and by the neighing of a horse. 
The analogy here regards principally the momentary duration, 
frequency, and abruptnes of sound ; for the gurgling is generaly 
made by a quick iteration on one unvarying or level line of pitch. 
In the scale now under consideration, each sucesive pulse of sound 
is taken at a Minute Discrete-interval above the last, till the series 
reaches the octave. We canot tell the precise extent of this minute 
interval, nor the number of pulses in given portions of the scale ; 
since this function is executed in a maner, and with a rapidity that 
eludes discrimination. Nor is this point material now. My pur- 
pose requires it to be known, that the voice may rise and fall, with 
short and abrupt iterations, thru the several intervals of pitch, by 



82 DIVISIONS AND EXPLANATIONS. 

discrete steps, less than a semitone. Whether the discrete space 
is that fractional part of a tone caled a comma, or some division or 
multiple of it, we leave to be determined by other means than that 
of the ear alone. Let us then call this species of movement, the 
Tremulous Scale. 

We have described four kinds of progresion in pitch ; and 
in speaking of the concrete, its slide was not caled a scale, since 
its unbroken line has no analogy with the interupted steps of a 
discrete sucesion ; yet with a full comprehension of its construc- 
tion, there can be no objection to its being so called. 

The human voice has then Four scales of pitch. The Concrete ; 
in which, from the outset to the termination of the voice, either in 
rising or faling, there is no apreciable interval, or interuption of 
continuity. 

The Diatonic; wherein the discrete transitions are principaly 
by whole tones. 

The Chromatic ; consisting of a discrete sucesion of semitones : 
and, 

The Tremulous ; which with its momentary impulses, separated 
from each other by very minute intervals^ has never, as far as I 
am aware, been employed on musical instruments, in an upward 
and a downward progresion; the tremolo being a tremor on a 
straight line of pitch ; and the Trill or Shake being as will be 
shown hereafter, a totaly distinct function. 

The extent of the speaking voice on any of these four scales, 
within the limits of distinct articulation, is caled the Compas of 
Speech.* 

* There is a musical scale, described by the Greeks, but used only at an 
early period, caled the Enharmonic ; which however, has no relation to the 
natural system of speech ; yet from the term ' Enharmonic voice,' employed 
without explanation by Dionysius Thrax, a Greek grammarian, who lived 
shortly before the Christian eraj it seems to have been infered, that the spoken 
intonation of the Ancients was somehow formed on this scale : and tho Mr. 
Steele suffered his observation to be so far overruled* by the vague authority of 
this inference, as to give the diagram of his proposed scale with what he calls 
an enharmonic divisionj perhaps a short acount of this division, may convince 



* I have made this word an exception to the exclusion of double consonants, for the division i8 
here sylabic and properly pronounced over-ruled, not over-uled : and it is the same with words of 
like construction. 



DIVISIONS AND EXPLANATIONS. 83 

For the purpose of explanation, the scales have been represented 
separately ; yet in the practice of the voice they are variously 

the Keader, as we precede, that it could not have been employed in the proper 
intonation of what we shall consider Natural speech. 

The Greek musical scale consisted of only three intervals, embraced between 
four degrees, as marked by the strings of their instruments, and was therefore 
caled the Tetrachord. The moderns have made their scale an Octachord, or 
Octave, by joining two sucesive Greek scales, with a tone between them : for 
in our octave, from C to F, and again from G to C, each of the two sets of 
four degrees, has the like order of their constituent tones and semitones; show- 
ing that the tetrachord scale is just half of ours. Our music employs but 
one proper scale, the diatonic ; for the chromatic is not an independent one, 
on which a melody can be made with its semitones alone ; but is formed, for 
ocasional use, by dividing the whole tones j that the semitones may be em- 
ployed in other places, than the two which are proper to them, in the natural 
diatonic sucesion. Neither in music nor in song, do we technicaly recognize 
the Concrete and the Tremulous Scales : and it was the same with the Greeks. 

The Greek writers describe six diferent scales ; three chromatic ; two dia- 
tonic ; and one enharmonic, formed respectively, by certain subdivisions of 
the scale into intervals of different extent. For ilustration however, we will 
describe only, what they caled the Intense diatonic, and the Enharmonic. 
Supose the Tetrachord to be divided into sixty parts ; and let C, D, E and F 
be the places, or degrees, including its three intervals ; 24 to represent the 
tone ; 12 the semitone ; and 6 the quarter-tone, caled diesis, or the enharmonic 
interval. The Intense-diatonic Tetrachord, which is, when doubled, and 
united by a tone, the same we now employ j was aranged as Mows : 



Tone. D Tone. E Semitone. 

24 24 12 

The Enharmonic tetrachord : 



C Ditone. D Diesis. E Diesis. F 

48 6 6 

Now as 48, the double of 24, make two tones ; and six, the fourth or quarter 
of 24, the diesis; the enharmonic arangement is that of a ditone or major 
third and two sucesive quarter-tones. 

The Greeks themselves state, that the musical use of this scale was very 
dificult ; and in later times was altogether laid aside: neither of Which, as 
cause or consequence, could have ocured if there had been a natural character 
in it ; for certainly, a continued tune on a sucesion of its intervals would, 
to a modern and natural ear, until fashion should recomend it, be altogether 
inefective, or very abominable. Consistently with this view, we shall learn 
hereafter, that speech makes no specificaly distinct nor apreciable use of the 
quarter-tone: showing how the history of the human voice has in this as in 
so many other ways, been falsified and confused. 

The other four scales seem to have had no more of a natural condition, than 



84 DIVISIONS AND EXPLANATIONS. 

united ; speech making use of them all. The concrete is always 
found ; and we shall hereafter learn in what maner the diatonic, 
chromatic, and tremulous scales are conected with it. 

The term Melody is, in music, aplied to a regulated vocal or to 
an instrumental use of the diatonic and chromatic scales. The full 
meaning of the term embraces the further relations of time, ryth- 
mus, and pause. I here speak of pitch alone. That efect in music 
called melody, is produced by the use of the seven notes of the 
scale, in any agreeable order of their possible permutations, either 
in a Proximate or Skiping progresion. We shall learn hereafter, 
that the Melody of Speech is founded on a like principle of varied 
intervals ; yet with peculiarities, arising from a systematic use of 
its concrete, discrete, and tremulous movements, and from its not 
being afected by the use of what in music is called, Key. 

The term Key is aplied to each of the several orders of the 
diatonic scale, on musical instruments. And as it apears by the 
diagram of the key-board, that the Semitonic divisions of the 
whole tones of the scale make twelve placesj from each of which 
a diatonic sucesion may be aranged j so the scale of the piano-forte 

the Enharmonic; and this leads to the conclusion, that like ourselves, the 
Greeks used the diatonic as the only scale for agreeable melody, and for any 
harmony they may have known and practiced. 

But why should all the Greek writers have named their other scales, if they 
never used them? This we cannot answer: tho we might class the question 
with the whole design of their metaphysics, which was to dream, write, and 
wrangle about things, never to be used or even comprehended. But laying 
aside, for a moment, our prescribed rules for observing, reflecting, and writing, 
we will ofer a pasing conjecture and no more, upon it. 

Since the ear for music, like the eye for Euclid's circle and square, and the 
tongue for wormwood and honey, is the same now, that it was among the 
Greeks^ we can acount for their being satisfied with their unnatural scales, by 
suposingj First ; that a few particular phrases of ritual chants, or of choral 
responses^ formed out of the peculiar sucesion of the notes of these scales, on 
some early and imperfect instrument^ were so closely conected with the Temple 
Service, the Sacrifice, or the Procesion, or with a Popular Obstinacy in some 
rude vocal habit, as to reconcile the ear to any odity and disonance. Or, 
second ; by suposing, the unnatural melodies or sucesions on these scales, to 
be traditions of the canting shouts of barbarian Festivals, originally excited 
by some wild religious working on the voices after its maner of working on 
the eye, in making to itself, without a revolting of truth or taste, the graven 
image of its Gods, in every outrageous contortion of the human form.' But 
these conjectures are apart from the design of this Work. 



DIVISIONS AND EXPLANATIONS. 85 

admits of twelve diferent keys ; and these being subdivided into 
Flat and Sharp Keys, make twenty-four in all ; but these have no 
regard to speech. The first note of the sucesion is caled as we said 
formerly, the key-note. The relationship of this to the other notes 
of the scale is such, that a melody will apear unfinished, if its last 
sound be not the key-note of the scale, or the octave to itj which 
is its nearest concord. 

It is a condition in music, that a melody formed of the varied 
permutations of the notes of any one key, shall not employ the 
constituent notes of another. In the vertical diagram, there is the 
first order, with its key-note at number one ; and a second with its 
key-note at five. To form this second order we divided the tone 
between the eleventh and twelfth points j to obtain the second 
semitone of the diatonic scale; and it apears that all the notes are 
comon to the two orders, except the seventh of the second, marked 
eleven in the diagram. A melody or tune begun on the first order, 
canot employ that eleventh, and be agreable to the ear, except with 
a design to leave the first order, and afterwards to carry on the 
tune altogether by the order of the second. This transition from 
one order to another is called Modulation, or Changing the key. 
It is employed in vocal and instrumental music, but is not apli- 
cable to speech. 

The term Intonation signifies the act of performing the move- 
ments of pitch on any interval of the several scales, whether in 
speech, in song, or in instrumental use. It therefore regards, only 
the changes of sound between acutenes and gravity. Intonation 
is said to be corect or true, when the discrete steps, or concrete 
slides over the intended interval are made with exactnes. True 
intonation in speech means further j the just use of its intervals, 
for denoting the states of mind in thot and pasion. Deviation 
from this precision is called, singing, or playing, and it may be 
hereafter, Speaking out of tune.* 

* Instead of the term Intonation, which embraces in music, the doctrine of 
intervals, and their exact execution^ the words Inflection and Modulation have 
been used by writers, to expres only a general and obscure perception of some 
variation of pitch, in the speaking voice. So entirely have they seemed to 
overlook the analogy between the scale of music, and of speech, that the Eng- 
lish term Intonation, which has been used in the former art, at least a cen- 
tury, to denote the precise recognition of intervals^ is not, with this meaning 



86 DIVISIONS AND EXPLANATIONS. 

The term Cadence in music, means, a consumation of the desire 
for a full close in the melody, by the resting of its last sound in 
the key-note. It will be shown hereafter, that the cadence or 
close of speech is efected in a diferent maner. 

I have here tried to prepare the Reader for all that relates to 
the science and nomenclature of music, in the folowing description 
of speech. When a full knowledge of the modes, forms, and uses 
of the voice will have become familiar, by general instruction and 
practice, the Art of Speaking will seem to ofer less dificulty, by 
having an admited system and nomenclature of its own. Now, 
we are obliged to study another art, to make an Art of it. 

In whatever way a pupil may learn or be taught to recognize 
and to execute the intervals of the scale, let me here again call 
his atention to the necesity of making himself familiar with a per- 
ception of the concrete and discrete movement^ when formed not 
only on simple vowel sounds, but on sylables, the comon ground 
of intonation in speech. Let the pupil then, on any sylable capa- 
ble of prolongation, rise concretely, from the first degree of the 
scale, to the octave ; and from this, imediately return concretely to 
the first degree, while the efect of the extent of the rising octave 
remains upon the ear. In like maner, let him ascend and de- 
scend thru the concrete fifth, third, second, and semitone. 

For acquiring familiarity with the discrete intervals of speech, 
the intonation should be performed by means of two sylables. 
Taking the word gaily, let the pupil begin at the first degree of 
the scale, with gai, and by a skip, strike the octave with ly: then, 
in imediate return, while memory of the interval serves him, take 
gai at the octave, and descend to the first, on ly. In a similar 
maner, let the voice be exercised on the discrete fifth, third, second, 
and semitone. 

Facility in executing the concrete semitonic movement of speech, 

to be found, as far as I can learn, in any of the numberless books on elocu- 
tion, published within this period. Mr. Sheridan incidental}' employs this 
term ; but with no reference to intervals and their expresion, and only in the 
indefinite meaning of the phrasej ' tones of the voice.' Baily restricts intona- 
tion soley to music. Dr. Johnson limits it to the 'act of thundering.' In 
aplication to speech, it is at Vast finding its way into Dictionaries. I need not 
say, how often, the description of speech, founded on the identity of its inter- 
vals with those of music, will hereafter require the use of this term. 



DIVISIONS AND EXPLANATIONS. 87 

is to be atained by plaintively repeating the interjection ah, both 
ascending and descending, between the seventh and eighth degrees 
of the diatonic scale. 

The pupil will acquire a ready comand over the tremulous into- 
nation, by practicing the characteristic tremor of this scale, on the 
semitone with a plaintive expression, and with laughter, or exulta- 
tion, on the other intervals. 

By frequent practice of these several intonations on single syl- 
ables, the voice will be prepared for the precise use of intervals, 
in the sylabic sucesions of speech. 

The preceding explanations have been extended rather beyond 
what is absolutely necesary, for comprehending the proper science 
of Analytic Elocution, now to be first set-forth. The function of 
Key and of Modulation in music, has been described with some 
care, altho speech is not constructed upon the principles of either. 
It may not however, be uninteresting to some inquirers, to know 
wherein the diferences of the cases consist. 

The term Elocution is aplied thruout this Work to signify the 
vocal Representation of thot and pasion ; and properly includes 
every form of corect Reading, and of Public, and Coloquial 
Speech. And yet we shall, by license, often aply the terms 
Reading and Speaking, each as that of Elocution, to designate 
the whole of the Art. The words Recitation, Delivery, and 
Declamation, as well as those designating public Places, and Pro- 
fesions, are not here technicaly, if at all, employed in reference to 
vocal character. Styles of elocution may difer, within the rule 
for justly denoting pasion and thot ; and this rule should direct 
alike the style of the Advocate, the Witnes, and the Judge ; of the 
Pulpit, the Stage and the Senate ; of the Stump-orator ; and of 
the varied voices of conversation. Had there been a more abun- 
dant and precise knowledge, of how language shud be spoken, 
there wud have been much less said of the Person and the Place. 

If I should employ the term Reading-aloud, it will not be in 
contradistinction to ocular perusal. To read, as a term of Elocu- 
tion, always means to read-aloud. I may however use the term 
Silent Reading, to signify, not ocular perusalj but the future 
mental reading of a notation on the staff of speech ; in like man- 
ner as the notes of music are silently read on the staff of song, 



SO THE RADICAL AND 

by the vocalist, and composer ; for I shall hereafter show, that a 
knowledge of the constituents and principles of scientific speech, 
is as atainablej and an aplication of them, as practicable and easyj 
as in the case of scientific music. I adopt from the old Elocu- 
tionist, the term l Reading- well/ and preserve it, as a memorial of 
the style even of his school, having generaly been so bad, that it 
became necesary to distinguish an ocasional individual from the 
herd, by his acomplishment in Reading-well. 

I feel how perplexing it is, I was about to say, it is imposible 
by description alone, to render the separate parts of a science, so 
well divided in method yet so closely related in detail, as that of 
music, clearly inteligible. If what has been said, will enable the 
Reader to perceve the system and particulars of the Four Scales, 
and to execute them, he will not have much difficulty in pursuing 
our further history of a new and beautiful Physical Science of 
the Human Voice. 



SECTION II. 

Of the Radical and Vanishing movement of the voice; and its 
dif event forms in Speech, Song, and Recitative. 

We have been wiling to beleve, on faith alone, that Nature is 
wise in the ordination of speech. Let us now show by our works 
of analysis, in what maner, and with what a perfection of economy, 
that canot surpas itself, she manages the simple constituents of the 
voice, in the production of their unbounded combinations.* 

* As I profes, in this Work, to draw the history of the human voice, alto- 
gether from observation by the ear, and experiment with the tongue, it will be 
convenient, and even necesary^ from the constant reference to the combined 
agencies that make up the system of speech j to have some brief term to desig- 
nate what we supose to be the directive principle, or general agent over these 
subordinate and perceptible agencies. I have therefore in the text, adopted an 
abstract sign for all these agencies, and their efectsj in the word Nature ; a 
word often taken in eror, and in vain, but not yet obsolete. This Term, this 
Nature^ I use every where, and always with the same meaning when person- 
ified, as the representative of an al-suficient, and ever-present system of causes ; 
which in the broad wisdom of its ordination, and universal consistency of its 



VANISHING MOVEMENT. 



89 



When the leter a, as heard in the word day, is pronounced 
simply as an alphabetic element, without intensity or emotion, 
and as if it were a continuation, not a close of uterance, two dip- 
thongal sounds are heard continuously sucesive. The first has the 
nominal sound of this leter, and isues with a certain degree of ful- 
nes. The last is the element e, as heard in eve, gradualy diminish- 
ing to an atenuated close. During the pronunciation, the voice 
rises continuously by the concrete movement of a tone or second ; 
the begining of a, and the termination of e, being severaly the 
inferior and superior extremes of that tone. The character of this 
concrete rise is visibly represented in the first of the following 
diagrams. A curvature of lines seeming to aford a more graceful 
analogy to the peculiar efect of the vocal concrete, it will thru this 
Work apear as in the second. 





If the above description of the concrete shud not, from its deli- 
cate structure, and momentary duration, be at once recognized, I 
here give a further explanation of it. 

That the sound denoted by the letter a, utered concretely, has 
the dipihongal character, will be obvious on deliberately drawing 
out the single element, as a question of great surprise. For in this 
case, its comencement is what I have caled the nominal aj and its 
termination in e, at a high pitch, is no less distinguishable. 

By the same use of earnest interogation, the f nines, or greater 
volume of sound upon a, and the diminishing close in e, will be 
obvious to an atentive ear. Nor is it improbable^ the feeblenes 
of this last constituent of a, in ordinary pronunciation, is at least 
one cause, why the dipthongal structure of this element has never, 
far as I know, been perceved, or described. 

efects, is the bright and unchanging example of truth, and right, and good- 
nes, and beauty; and worthy of unceasing study and imitation j for begining, 
without delusive hopes, the intelectual, the political, the moral, and esthetic 
refinement of man. 

7 



90 THE RADICAL AND 

That a, utered simply as the head of the alphabet, without re- 
markable expresion, and as a continuation, not a close of speech^ 
does ascend by the concrete interval of a tone, will be manifest 
to the Keader, in his ability to intonate the diatonic scale. For 
let him ascend discretely, on the alternate use of a and e, prolong- 
ing each as a note, and making a slight pause between them. This 
will render him familiar with the relationship of the two elements, 
when heard on the extremes of a tone : as ilustrated in the follow- 
ing diagram ; where from line to line is one degree, or a tone of 



E- 



the scale ; where the oval figures with their attenuated rising ter- 
minations, represent respectively the level or protracted note, with 
its final, faint, and rapid concrete isue in e ; and where the diferent 
sizes of the subscribed leters may show the proportional duration 
and volume of voice, in the diferent parts of each impulse of 
pronunciation. 

Then let him ascend the scale, by a kind of union of the con- 
crete and discrete progresions, or begining with a, slightly pro- 
longed, and proceding to e, in the second place, without breaking 
the continuity of sound ; and thence after slightly prolonging e, 
pasing concretely to a, in the third place, as ilustrated in the fol- 
lowing diagram ; where full notes are conected by slender concretes. 
This practice will make him familiar with the efect of a concrete 
rise thru a tone, when the uper extreme is remarkable, by the 
stres and prolongation it receves at the second place of the scale. 




E- 



VANISHING MOVEMENT. 91 

Suposing the concrete interval of a tone to be distinguishable, 
when utered with a full volume of sound on the two extremes a 
and e, or with what may be caled a double stres or stres on the 
two extremes of the concrete^ it may be proved in the folowing 
maner, that the simple uterance of a in day, pases thru the same 
interval. Let the a and e be repeatedly pronounced with this 
double stres, united by the weaker concrete, till the efect of the 
interval is for the moment impresed upon the ear. Then let the 
stres on e be gradualy diminished in the repetition ; as ilustrated 
by the series of symbols in the folowing diagram. The audible 



A E A — e A— e A-e A-e A_ e A_ 



efect of the last of the series, even with a total cesation of the uper 
stres, will in intonation, so resemble, yet faintly, the double stres 
on the first, that the cases will be admited as identical. The tone 
being then plainly conizable as the first interval of the scale, when 
both extremes receve the stresj so in returning to the simple pro- 
nunciation of a, by gradualy diminishing the stres at its uper ex- 
tremity, the perception of this interval will be kept up during the 
progress of the change. In the above experiment we have, to suit 
the order of our history, begun with the limited interval of a tone ; 
but for proof of the concrete function, it will be more obvious when 
made on the expresive interval of the fifth or octave. 

If there shud be a doubt, as to the extent of the concrete inter- 
val, let stres be aplied at its sumit. When the interval is a tone, 
the two stvesed sounds will form the first two notes of the diatonic 
scale ; for with a little experience, the course of this scale can always 
be recognized, in the execution of its first and second degrees. 

The simple dipthongal sound of a, without the sumit-stres, does 
then, as we have ilustrated it, pass thru the concrete interval of a 
tone or second; the movement being divided between the sounds 
of a and e, the first gliding into the last. But as the distinction 
here refers to the extent of the interval traversed, to its upward 



92 THE RADICAL AND 

direction, and to its concrete progresj it is necesary to uter the 
literal element, without the least expresion; for if it be with 
plaintivenes, surprise, or interogationj or as a positive comand, the 
concrete will be some other interval than the tone ; this tone or 
second, being the maner of utering simple thot, exclusively of the 
excitement pasion. 

The peculiar structure of the concrete movement led to the di- 
vision of it by terms, into two parts ; and the use of these terms, 
for explanatory purposes in the folowing history, will show their 
propriety. 

I have caled the first part of the concrete, or that of a, in the 
above instance, the Radical movement ; since, with a full begining 
or opening, the subsequent and diminishing portion of the concrete 
procedes from it as from a base or root. 

I have called the last part, or that of e, in the example, the 
Vanishing movement, from its becoming gradualy weaker as it 
rises, and finaly dying away in the uper extreme of the tone. 

It must strike the Reader, that the above terms can have only a 
general reference to the two extremes of the concretej for the 
gradual change of the radical into the vanish prevents our asign- 
ing an exact point of distinction between them. 

When a single vowel sound, capable of prolongation, is utered 
with propriety and smoothnes, and without vocal expresion, it 
comences full and somewhat abruptly, and gradualy decreases in 
its upward movement, until it becomes inaudible ; having the in- 
crements of time and rise, and the decrements of fulnes, equably 
progresive. Or, suposing a gradual diminution of fulnes, in the 
gradual rise thru a tone to be efected in a given timej one half or 
smaler fraction of that rise and diminution will be efected in one 
half or smaler fraction of that time. Let us call this form of the 
radical and vanishing movement, the Equable Concrete. 

The varied forms of the vocal function in Song and Recitative, 
may ilustrate the character of this equability in the intonation of 
speech. 

The long-drawn voice of one continued pitch, heard in song 
and recitative, is produced in two ways. 

First; by giving a greater proportion of time and volume to 
one continuous and level line of sound, in the radical place ; and 



VANISHING MOVEMENT. 93 

by subsequently rising concretely, lightly, and rapidly, thru the 
superior portion of the interval. Let us call this, the Protracted 
Radical. 

Second; by rising concretely, lightly, and rapidly thru the in- 
ferior portion of the interval, and then prolonging the voice with 
greater volume, on a level line at the highest point of the vanish. 
Let us call this, the Protracted Vanish. 

Thus far, intonation exhibits three modifications of the radical 
and vanishing movement : The Equable Concrete of speech ; the 
Protracted Radical, and the Protracted Vanish, both of which 
are used in song and recitative. We shall learn, as we procede, 
the various relationships of the concrete to all the simple and 
compounded intervals, to the alphabetic elements, to time, and to 
force. 

I have spoken of the radical and vanishing movement through 
a tone, to explain by that interval, the formation of the concrete 
rise, and its threefold division. In taking a wider survey of the 
subject, we learn j the radical and vanish is made on every other 
interval. 

Ascending concretely, from the seventh to the eighth degree 
of the scale, by a and e, in the maner of the diagram on the 
ninety-first page; that is, by laying a stres on the two extremes 
of this interval^ the voice has a plaintive character, very diferent 
from that of the tone, or interval between the first and second. 
The interval from the seventh to the eighth place of the diatonic 
scale, is a semitone. This plaintive concrete therefore, when aten- 
uated, and made equable by gradualy diminishing the stres at its 
uper extreme, shown in the sucesive symbols of that diagram^ is 
the radical and vanishing or equable concrete movement of a 
semitone. 

Again, in ascending concretely upon a and e, from the first to 
the third place of the scale, with a stres on e, in that third place, 
the efect of this continuous movement difers from that of the 
tone, and the semitone ; for it resembles a moderate degree of in- 
terogation on the element a. This concrete, when atenuated or 
made equable, by gradualy diminishing the stres at its uper ex- 
treme, is the radical and vanishing or equable concrete movement 
of a third. 



94 THE KADICAL AND 

By a proces analogous to that just proposed, for distinguishing 
the interval of a third, we may ascertain the concrete movement 
of a fifth, and of an octave ; for these, with stres at their uper 
extremes, have earnest interogative expresions. Then diminishing 
the stress, directed in the former cases, we have respectively, the 
equable radical and vanishing movements of the fifth and octave. 

In this manner, the ear perceves in their varied characters, the 
several vocal movements of an equable Rising radical and vanish- 
ing semitone, of a tone or second, of a major third, a fifth, and 
an octave. These intervals have their proper significations in 
the expresion of speech, and will be particularly noticed hereafter. 

The above description represents the Concrete rise of the several 
intervals. 

The Discrete scale is likewise used in speech ; and its skiping 
intervals are, perhaps, as readily distinguishable as the gliding 
intervals of the concrete. When therefore we are able to ascend 
the discrete steps of the diatonic scale, in proximate sucesion, and 
to recognize its wider intervals, we have only to mark, by some 
vowel-sound, the first and second, and the seventh and eighth 
degrees of the scale, to form respectively the discrete rising tone 
or second, and the semitone. In like maner by skiping the other 
intervals, we shall have a discrete rising third, fifth, and octave. 

Let us consider another condition of the radical and vanish. 
We have viewed the concrete of the voice only in its rising pro- 
gres. There is a similar glide in a downward direction respectively 
thru all the intervals of the scale. In this downward form of 
the concrete, we take the scale numericaly, as in its upward course ; 
the like number of degrees constituting intervals of the same 
name, in each direction. For this descending progres, music em- 
ploys the terms, a second, third, fifth, and octave, below ; whereas, 
for the intonations of speech, I shall generaly use the adjective- 
term downward, or descending, or faling, to denote this direction 
on the scale. Refering then to our former experiments, if the bow 
be drawn while the finger is moving continuously, from the eighth 
place on the string to any distance downward, it will produce a 
concrete descending sound. In this way, the faling concrete will 
have the described properties of the rising radical and vanish, with 
this diference onlyj the radical, if it may now be so caled, is here 



VANISHING MOVEMENT. 95 

at the sumit of the interval, while the vanish equably diminishes 
to its lower extreme. To render the extent of a downward inter- 
val perceptible, let the stres be aplied to the extremity of its de- 
scending vanish, and then in repetition gradualy diminished, as 
ilustrated by the diagram, on the ninety-first page, when taken 
in an inverted position, from right to left. Thus exemplified, the 
movement from a, at the eighth degree of the scale, to e, in the 
seventh, will give the downward equable-concrete semitone; from 
the second to the first, the downward-equable-fone ; and in this 
maner, a descent from the third, fifth, and eighth degree, respec- 
tively to the first, will give the downward radical and vanishing or 
equable-concrete third, fifth, and octave. 

The downward movement is likewise made in the discrete pro- 
gresion. This may be readily heard on the Piano, and other in- 
struments with a scale of fixed degrees $ by striking in sucesion, 
the extreme notes of the required interval ; and in the voice, by a 
unison-imitation of these instrumental sounds, upon vowels or 
sylablesj thereby exemplifying a downward discrete octave, fifth, 
third, second, and semitone. 

. He who is acquainted with the musical scale, but has not yet 
considered it with reference to speech, may ascertain the upward 
course of the tone and of the semitone, on a vowel, by comparing 
their efects respectively with those of the first and last interval of 
the rising scale. In like maner, he may know the downward 
course of the semitone and of the tone, by comparing them respec- 
tively with the first and the last interval of the descending scale. 
Every one knows a plaintive expresion in speech ; it is easy there- 
fore to recognize a semitone. And perhaps there is not too much 
confidence in aserting, that before the atentive and competent 
Reader has finished this essay, he will have no more dificulty in 
discriminating every other important interval of the rising and 
the faling scale. 

I say nothing here of a concrete radical and vanishing fourth, 
sixth, and seventh ; nor of wider ranges than the octave ; nor of 
the discrete movement over these intervals ; not that the voice in 
an upward and a downward course does not use them, but that a 
reference to the third, fifth, and octave, is suficiently precise for 
the purpose of our history. 



96 THE RADICAL AND 

Besides the above-described forms of the concrete and discrete 
movements, both in an upward and downward direction, there is a 
continuous course of the rising into the faling concrete^ and re- 
versely, a continuity of the faling into the rising. This form of 
the radical and vanish will be particularly noticed hereafter under 
the name of the Wave. We will call it Direct, when the first 
interval ascends, and the second descends; Inverted, when this 
order of the intervals is reversed ; Equal, when the rising and the 
faling are in extent the same ; and Unequal, when diferent. It is 
called Single, when two intervals only are joined : Double, when 
another is subjoined to the second of the single form : and Con- 
tinued, when the number of flexures excede the double. The 
wave is made on all the intervals of the scale ; and its diferent 
forms may be variously united with each other. It may be double- 
direct, unequal direct, double-unequal, and in short, its intervals 
may be in all posible combinations. 

I have not yet finished the preparatory explanations. The 
simple radical and vanish may, in its rise and its fall, receve a 
Fulnes or Force, or acentual stres, under the six Mowing forms. 
First. The radical of the equable movement, as previously shown,, 
is distinguished from the rest of the concrete, by its initial stres. 
Second. While the proportion of radical to vanish remains unal- 
tered, the whole equable concrete may be magnified by unusual 
force. Third. The voice may be sweled, on a concrete, or on a 
wave, to an impresive fulnes, at the midle of its course. Fourth. 
There may be an unusual stres at each extremity of the concrete. 
Fifth. While the radical is reduced in fulnes, the vanishing ex- 
tremity may have a forcible termination. Sixth. The concrete or 
the wave may have the fulnes and force of the radical thruout its 
whole extent. As there will be frequent ocasions to discriminate 
between these acentual conditions of the radical and vanish, and 
its equable structure, I shall employ the phrase Simple Concrete, 
to distinguish the later from its variations by force or fulness, at 
its several points or on the whole of its course. 

I have in the present and the preceding section taken a general 
survey of the five modes of Yocality, Time, Force, Abruptnes, 
and Pitchj preparatory to a detail of their respective forms, varie- 
ties, and degrees, in denoting the states and purposes of the mind ; 



VANISHING MOVEMENT. 97 

and shall hereafter make a division of these states and purposes, 
into that of plain unexcited Thot, and that of the expresive de- 
grees of Pasion ; particularly describing the vocal sign apropriate 
to each. 

The folowing diagrams may ilustrate the various foregoing de- 
scriptions. The spaces and lines denote places of pitch ; the prox- 
imate sucesion of line and space being that of a second or tone. 
These lines and spaces difer from the staf of the musical system; 
the later being founded on the diatonic scale, denotes in certain 
places, the interval of a semitone ; whereas the lines and spaces 
for the notation of speech signify always, the sucesion of a tone, 
except otherwise specified. The full black symbols on these lines 
and spaces, with their isuing and tapering apendages of various 
extent, represent the opening fumes, direction, and diminution of 
the radical and vanishing movement. The distances between the 
radicals of the concrete seconds, thirds, fifths, and octaves, severaly 
represent the discrete intervals. Time is represented as in music : 
the open elipse signifying the longest ; the small head and stem, 
with its two hooks to denote the duration of the vanish, being in 
this case, the sixteenth part of the open elipse. Except for the 
protracted radical, and vanish, the notation of Time will not be 
here employed. A use of the measurable relations of Time, with 
the proportional value of its symbols, is indispensable to the me- 
lodial rythmus, and to the concerted harmonies of music. Speech 
being a solo of intonation, and requiring no conformity in time with 
other voices j the use of Quantity on sucesive sylables, is left to the 
thot or pasion which directs the apropriate utterance. 

These diagrams represent three of the five modes of the voices 
Pitch ; Abruptnes, and Time. Vocality has never, to my knowl- 
edge, had a symbol either in music or speech : yet there is no 
cause why it mit not and shud not, when remarkable in its difer- 
ences, be so represented. Force is vaguely indicated by the usual 
gramatical marks for acent and emphasis, and by italic type. 
Should this analysis and system be ever generaly adopted ; and 
the purposes of speech require itj apropriate symbols for Vo- 
cality, Force, and Time, may without much dificulty be conected 
with the forms of the equable concrete, and the wave. 



98 



THE RADICAL AND 



I have not given symbols for the concrete and discrete minor 
third, and semitone, since their representation on the staff may be 
easily made. 






Lrfi 



O r-» " 



OMB 






^E5 



M « 



•04 



** rC 



■Ph 



"8 bJD J 


-1-3 




£ c > 




c 

o 


o ^ 


Cone 
Eisi 
Octa 



s £ t 

O c oS 

§ "I 



^ F*=F^ ^ 



.2 £ 









G 03 r O' 



53 <H ^ 

a -©■ 

S O 53 



03 



rj 03 



G Cm 



3 -*» 

ST 1 *•"• 

s ° 

03 03 

r— l -4-3 

9 03 

© £ 



msi 



Forms of acentual fulnes or stres on the Concrete. 



Ilitll 



In the above notation, there is no meaning in the curve of the 
vanish, except on the wavesj nor in the circular enlargement of 



VANISHING MOVEMENT. 99 

the radical. In this, as formerly remarked, the eye only was 
consulted ; yet I cannot say, the engraver has, in all cases, done 
justice to the drawing furnished.* 

I have here described, under its various forms, an important 
and delicate function of speech. There is a peculiarity in the 
human voice which has never been copied by instrumental con- 
trivances. The sounds of the horn, flute, and musical-glass, may 
severaly equal and even surpas in vocality a long-drawn and level 
vocal note: still there is something wanting, that distinguishes 
their intonation from that of speech. It. is the want of the equa- 
ble gliding, the lesening volume, and the soft extinction of the 
yet inimitable radical and vanishing movement. 

And further; the simple uterance of the radical and vanish 
seems to be an instinctive and uncontrolable function of the voice : 
for to my observation, even the very shortest vocal impulse on a 
vowel or sylable, is not, so to speak, a mere point of sound with- 
out dimensions, but is necesarily made upward or downward by 
some, however rapid movement. This remark is true of the voices 
of many sub-animals. Does it aply to all ? and even to comon 
mechanical noises ? 

In the course of this esay, I shall endeavor to obviate the efect 
of that repetition of its nomenclature, which the purpose of ex- 
planation and the newnes of the subject mit require^ by the use 
of various abreviated but equivalent terms. The Concrete func- 
tion will, according to the general or specific purpose in its use, 

* On first observing the peculiar character of the radical and vanish 3 when 
my atention was sometimes misled by hasty conclusions, and while doubtfuly 
experimenting on the form of melody^ I drew, partly after the patern of a 
musical note, the symbol of the concrete as it still remains. And see, how 
that deceitful thing the mind with its resemblances, as we are prone to use 
them, should be watched. Upon the first draft of the ilustrations, the grace- 
ful lines of a Greek scrol seemed analogous to the delicate impresion of the 
vocal vanish ; and the form then given to the symbol subsequently so influ- 
enced my perception, that perhaps I am not yet quite free from the thot that 
induced it. Altho aware from the first, that the figurative representation of 
the radical and vanish should be by the outline of a spire, still the wedge-like 
symbol, especialy if set obliquely on the staff, apeared too awkward a picture 
of this mastery no, this mistres-principle of the voice. 

I here offer an apology for my departure from corectnes in the ilustration. 
If I have comitted a fault I much regret it ; and thereupon write this note, to 
prevent a false impresion on the mind of the Header. 



100 THE RADICAL AND VANISHING MOVEMENT. 

be variously caled the radical and vanishing movement ; the con- 
crete movement, progresion, interval, or pitch ; or simply the 
radical and vanish, or the concrete ; or the radical and vanishing 
concrete tone, semitone, third, fifth, and octave. The Discrete 
function will be caled the discrete movement, progresion, change, 
skip, or pitch ; or the radical movement, change, progresion, skip, 
or pitch ; or the discrete tone, semitone, third, fifth, and octave. 
Each of the above phrases may have the specification of rise or 
fall, upward or downward, ascent or descent, according to the re- 
quired purpose, or to any desirable variation of terms. Shud 
the direction of the concrete, or of the radical not be specified 
or implied, the term is used for either rise or fall. As a general 
designation of the extent of intervals and wavesj all greater than 
those of the semitone and second will be called wider, to form 
a better rythmus than wide, in qualifying those terms of intona- 
tion. 

Let the Reader then not be alarmed at the variety of these 
terms. At present he need only regard them for future reference, 
if he should hereafter find it necesary. When he requires them, 
he will perhaps perceve, they are phrases conected so necesarily 
with the subject, that he himself might have made them. Indeed, 
a future wide companionship in the knowledge of speech, may have 
a shorter and more convenient nomenclature of its own. 

Let him however not be discouraged, by his first dificulty in 
discriminating the intervals of speech. There was much to per- 
plex and to threaten with despair, in the course of observation by 
which these intervals were first measured and described. Yet 
even these now palpable phenomerfa were not perceved at a mo- 
ment, as perhaps they mit be, under a simple and real education 
of the senses and of thot. For the miror of the mind obscured 
and distorted in its imagery, by a habitual ocupation with little 
else than Fictionj and Argument, too often the provocative of 
fictionj is not prepared to reflect the realities of nature without 
dimnes or delay. The first perceptions by the author of this esay 
were full of indistinctness and doubt ; far greater perhaps, than 
the inteligent Reader may experience from the descriptions in this 
section. Yet after three years familiarity with the different inter- 
vals of intonation, their various degrees were much more percep- 



ALPHABETIC ELEMENTS. 101 

tible to him, than the discrimination of colors without direct 
comparison ; and quite as distinguishable by their efect upon the 
ear in deliberate uterance, as the vocality, time, and force of sylabic 
sound. 



SECTION III. 

Of the Elementary Sounds of the English Language ; with their 
Relations to the Radical and Vanishing Movement 

The term Element is aplied to the most simple form of the 
articulate voice ; and is not otherwise used in this Essay. The 
element as a sound adresed to the ear, is to be distinguished from 
its visible symbol or leter ; which is sometimes specified as an 
alphabetic element. 

The radical and vanishing concrete, under all its forms, is em- 
ployed on a limited number of these elementary sounds, said by 
some writers, whom I here follow, to amount in the English lan- 
guage, to thirty-five. It seems useles to raise a distracting ques- 
tion on the subject of the kind and number of the elements. As 
long as the human mind prefers contention, to practical agreement, 
there will perhaps be refinements and diferences on this point. The 
thirty-five here asumed, aford all the distinctions required for the 
uses of this Work. And they have been found suficient for prac- 
tical purposes, by those who have no time nor fondness for useles 
discovery or for dispute.* 

* English philologists have, acording to their real or afected nicety of ear, 
difered on the subject of the number of the elements in our language. The 
diferences refer to the character of the sounds, or to the time, or maner of 
pronouncing them. The broad sound of a in all, and of o in occupy have 
been enumerated as diferent. If there is a diference, it may consist in the 
abrupt uterance of oc, or the sudenes with which the sound breaks from the 
organs. A like distinction has been made between o in ooze, and u in bwll j 
where the explosive acent seems to give the perceptible diference to the short 
vowel. Now this abruptnes of voice is a generic function, or mode, aplicable 
to all vowels, and therefore not a ground for specific distinction. It is how- 
ever, of little practical consequence, whether cases like these are decided one 
way or the other. 



102 ALPHABETIC ELEMENTS. 

An alphabet should consist of a separate symbol for every ele- 
mentary sound. Under this view, the deficiencies, redundancies, 
and confusion of the system of alphabetic characters in the Eng- 
lish language, prevent the adoption of its common grammatical 
subdivisions here. 

The sounds of the alphabetic elements are the material, and 
their combination into significant words, the formal causes of all 
language. It apears to me however, that a clasification, acording 
to their uses in other phenomena of speech, besides that of its ar- 
ticulation, wud be practicaly useful as well as definitively just. But 
as Intonation is an important mode of speech, the arangement of 
the elements if practicaly regarded, should have some reference to 
it. In the present section therefore, these elements will be de- 
scribed and clased, acording to their use in intonation.* 

* I set aside, in this place at least, the sacred division into vowels, conso- 
nants, mutes and semivowels. The complete history of nature will consist of 
a full description of all the interchangeable relationships, not of notions after 
the metaphysical maner, but of perceptible things. We receved the clasifi- 
cation of the elements from Greek and Roman gramarians : and their division, 
acording to organic causes, into labial, lingual, dental, and nasal, is now 
strictly a part of the physiology of speech. But whatever cause, conected with 
the vocal habits of another nation, or the etymologies of another tongue, 
may have justified the division into vowels and consonants acording to their 
definition, it does not exist with us. Without designing to overlook or de- 
stroy arangements, truly representing the relationships of these sounds, it is 
only intended in this esay to add to their history a division, grounded on their 
important functions in intonation. The strictnes of philosophy should not 
be so far forgoten, as to sufer the claim of this clasification to be exclusive. 
Let it remain as only a constituent portion, of new and wider prospects, yet 
to be opened in the art. 

Passing by other asailable points of our imemorial system, the contradis- 
tinction of its two leading divisions is a misrepresentation. Had he an ear 
who said, and belevedj a consonant cannot be sounded without the help of a 
vowel ? 

Among the thousand mismanagements of literary instruction, there is at 
the outset in the horn-book, a pretence to represent elementary sounds, by 
sylables composed of two or more elements, asj Be, Kay, Zed, double U, and 
Aitch. These words are used in infancy and thru life, as simple elements in 
the proces of synthetic speling. But no eror or oversight of the school shud 
ever make us forget the realities of nature. 

Any pronouncing dictionary shows, that consonants alone may form syla- 
bles ; and if they have never been apropriated to words which might stand 
solitary in a sentence, like the vowels a, i, o, a-h, and a-we, it is not because 



ALPHABETIC ELEMENTS. , 103 

As the number of elementary sounds in the English language 
excedes that of the literal symbols, and as some of these symbols, 
especialy those of the vowels, are made to represent various sounds, 
without a rule for discrimination^ I propose to suply this want of 
precision, by using short words of known pronunciation, contain- 
ing the elementary sounds with the leters that represent them, 
marked in italics ; which the Reader may exemplify to himself. 

Let him begin to utter the word all. The moment the sound of 
a is completed, let him pause ; and that initial sound gives one of 
the elementary sounds of a. In a like experiment with other in- 
itial vowels of selected examples, he will hear the precise sounds 
of the other vowel elements. Again, for the consonants. In the 
word bee, let him pause after the obscure 'guttural murmur' 
of its first sound, and he will hear the element represented by the 
letter 6. 

Or, otherwise : let him, in the instance of both vowel and con- 
sonant, prolong unusualy the first element, before joining it to the 
next ; and the single elementary vowel, and the single elementary 
consonant will be respectively heard in that prolongation. 

The thirty-five Elements are now to be considered under their 
relationships to the radical and vanish. And as the properties of 
this function are, prolongation of sound, and variation of con- 
crete pitch, with initial force and final feeblenesj these elements 
should be regarded in their varied capacity for the display of these 
properties. 

With this view, our elements of articulation may be aranged 
under three general heads. 

The first division embraces sounds with the radical and vanish 
in its most perfect form. They are twelve in number; and are 
heard in the usual sound of the separated italics, in the folowing 
words : 

-4-11, a-rt, a-n, a-le, ow-r, i-sle, o-ld, ee-1, oo-ze, e-rr, e-nd, 
and i-n. 

From their being the purest and most manageable means for 
intonation, I have called them Tonic sounds. 

they cannot be so used ; but because they have not that full and manageable 
kind of vocality, which exhibits the quantity, force, and intonation of an 
unconected element, with suficient emphasis and with agreeable efect. 



104 ALPHABETIC ELEMENTS. 

They consist of diferent sorts of Vocality* or of that kind of 
voice in which we usualy speak, and here contradistinguished from 
whisper or aspiration. They are produced by the joint functions 
of the larynx, fauces, and parts of the internal and external mouth. 

The tonicsj pronouncing the o broad, as in o-rj tire of a more 
tunable voice than the other elements. They are capable of in- 
definite prolongation ; admit of the concrete and tremulous rise 
and fall, thru all the intervals of pitch ; may be utered more 
forcibly than the other elements, as well as with more abruptnes ; 
and while these last two characteristics are apropriate to the fulnes 
and stres of the radicalj the atenuative prolongation, on their 
pure and controlable vocality, is finely acomodated to the vanishing 
movement. Universaly, they havej for the purposes of an agreable 
intonation^ a eutony, briefly so to call it, beyond the other elements. 

The second division includes a number of sounds, posesing 
variously among themselves, a character similar to that of the 
tonics; but difering in degree. They amount to fourteen; and 
are marked by the sound of the separated italics, in the folowing 
words : 

J5-ow, cf-are, #-ive, v-ile, 2-one, y-e> 10-0, th-en, a-z-ure, si-ng, 
Z-ove, m-ay, n-ot, r-ose. 

From their inferiority to the tonics, for all the emphatic and 
elegant purposes of speech, while they admit of being intonated or 
caried concretely thru the intervals of the scale, I have called them 
Subtonic sounds. 

They air have a vocality ; in some it is combined with aspiration. 
B, d, g, ng, I, m, n, r, have an unmixed vocality ; v, z, y, w, th, 
zh, have an aspiration joined with theirs. We have learned that 
the vocality of the tonics is in each, peculiar. The vocality of 
some of the subtonics is aparently the same ; and among all, it 
does not greatly difer; resembling that of certain five of the 
tonics, to be described presently. Like the vocality of the tonics, 
it is formed in the larynx ; but the sound in its outward course 
may have a modifying reverberation in the fauces, the mouth, and 
the cavities of the nose. A few subtonic vocalities are purely 
nasal, asj m, n, ng, 6, d y g. Others are purely oral. The nasal 
are soon silenced by closing the nostrils ; the rest are not materi- 
ally afected by it. The vocality of 6, d, and g, may not be imedi- 



ALPHABETIC ELEMENTS. 105 

ately perceved by those who have not, on the separate elements, 
atained the full comand of pronunciation. Writers have spoken of 
the vocality of these elements, under the name of * gutural mur- 
mur/ and have regarded it as a peculiar sound. It is the vocality, 
heard in v, th-en, z, zh, and r, modified into the respective articu- 
lation of by d and g. The vocality of 6, d and g, in ordinary 
speech has less duration and intensity, and is consequently less 
perceptible than that of v, th~en, z, zh y and r, but is the same in 
kind. It is the vocality alone of 6, that distinguishes it from p. 

I have enumerated y and w, as the initial sounds of ye and wo ; 
since y is a vocality like that of the other subtonics, mixed with 
an aspiration over the tongue, when near the roof of the mouthy 
and w a similar vocality, mixed with a breathing thru an aperture 
in the protruded lips. As b, d } g and zh are made by joining vo- 
calities instead of aspirations, with the organic positions of p, t, k, 
and sh; so y and w are severaly the mixture of vocality with the 
pure aspiration of A, as heard in he, and of wh, in wh-irYd. The 
substitution of vocality for aspiration changes these words respec- 
tively to ye and world. 

This vocality of the subtonics, either pure or mixed, nasal or 
oral, is variously modified by the nose, tongue, teeth and lips. An 
entire or partial obstruction of the curent of breath thru the 
mouth, and a subsequent removal of the obstruction, produces the 
peculiar sound of the subtonics : for, on pronouncing b y d, and g, 
and it is the same with all, the voice breaks from its obstruction 
with a short and feeble terminative impulse. It is in the mo- 
mentary terminative portion of subtonic sound, heard on removing 
this obstruction, that the character of the vocality, in some of these 
elements, may be most readily perceved. This vocula or little 
voice, if it may be so called, has been noticed by writers, as neces- 
ary to complete the uterance of the class of Mutes ; but it may be 
heard more or less conspicuously at the termination of all the 
subtonics. It is least perceptible in those having the most aspira- 
tion. In ordinary uterance it is short and feeble; and is most 
obvious in forcible or in afected pronunciation. When the sub- 
tonics precede the tonics, they lose this short and feeble termina- 
tion, and take in its place the full sound of the suceeding tonicj 
producing an abrupt opening of the tonic. 
8 



106 ALPHABETIC ELEMENTS. 

I have called this last-vented sound of the subtonics, the Vdculej 
pronouncing o, as in o-rj and have been particular in noticing and 
naming it, as both the function and the term will be refered to, in 
treating on Sylabication, and on Expresion. 

The five tonic sounds, to which the vocalities of the subtonics 
bear a resemblance, are ee-\, e-nd, i-n, e-rr, and oo-ze. Y-e and 
tv-o have respectively something like a nasal echo of ee-l, and oo-ze. 
B, d, g, v, th-en, z, zh and r resemble e-rr ; I, m, and n have some- 
thing of the sound of e-nd ; and ng, of t-n. 

The subtonics are subordinate to the tonics in their character 
and uses. The kind of sound is less agreeable. Compared with 
the clear vocal-fulnes of the tonics, it is obscured in the purest ; 
and in others, is destroyed by aspiration. They are severaly capa- 
ble of more or less prolongation, and may be carried thru the con- 
crete and tremulous variation of pitch. None admit of much 
force in their vocality; nor can initial fulnes be given to them 
without extraordinary efort. These last named insuficiencies pre- 
vent the subtonics from forming, like the tonics, a proper radical 
abruptnes on the concrete. When therefore a subtonic precedes a 
tonic, as in the sylable vain, the vocality of v, compared with the 
vocality of a, is so feeble, that with only a comon efort of uter- 
ance, there is an absence of the strong and suden opening of the 
radical. The subtonic does make a short initial to the sylable, and 
then breaks from its vocule into the suceding tonic. When pro- 
longed, its tendency is to continue on one line of pitch until the 
tonic a opens from the vocality of v, with the true character of the 
radical. It must not from this, be concluded^ the subtonics can in 
nowise form the opening of a sylable ; for all of them when sepa- 
rately utered, may be carried concretely thru every interval ; and 
even preceding a tonic, a strenuous efort may somewhat increase 
their volume, but cannot give them the abruptnes of a proper rad- 
ical. In ordinary pronunciation, they are scarcely apreciated as a 
part of the initial concrete. 

This want of force and abruptnes in a subtonic, does not prevent 
it from fulfiling the purpose of the vanish, when it succedes a tonic. 
In the sylable van* after the short and feeble sound of v$ the a 
begins the radical, and after rising thru a portion of the interval, 
glides into the subtonic n, which caries on and completes the 



ALPHABETIC ELEMENTS. 107 

vanish. This coalescence seems to be the result of the tonics having 
no final oclusion, and consequently no vocule. 

The remaining nine elements, forming the third division, are 
Aspirations, and have not that kind of sound caled vocality. They 
are produced by a curent of whispering breath thru certain internal 
and external parts of the mouth. They are heard in the sound 
of the separated italic, in the words j 

U^p, ou-t> &r-k, i-f, ye-s, h-e, wh-eat, th-in, pu-s/i. 

From their limited power of variation in pitch, even when utered 
singly with the designed effort to produce it, and from their sup- 
lying no part of the concrete when breathed among the tonic 
and subtonic constituents of sylables, I have caled them Atonic 
sounds. 

Writers have compared their articulative production with that 
of some of the subtonicsj showing them, respectively, to be almost 
identical in all their conditions except that of vocality, which is 
wanting in the atonies. 

B. D. G. V. Z. Y. W. Th. Zh. Ng. L. M. N. K. 

I I I I I I I I I 

P. T. K. F. S. H. Wh. Th. Sh. 

This whispering imitation not being made on all the sub- 
tonicsj the five exceptions do not altogether destroy the inference 
that nature has her i formative effort' towards a general rule of 
duplicative in these creations. The m, n, and ng are purely nasal ; 
and when their vocality is droped, the atempt to uter them by the 
mere breathing of the atonies, produces in each case similar snuf- 
ling aspirations. Yet even this snufling, tho no reputed element 
of speech, is used before the vocality of w, m, or ng y as the inar- 
ticulate sign of sneer. The two remaining subtonics, I and r, are 
in perfect English speech, unmatched by atonies. • But an aspirated 
copy of Z, produced by a kind of hising over the moisture of the 
tongue, is ocasionaly heard : and a true atonic paralel to r, in what 
is called the ' Northumbrian bur/ is in Britain, not an uncomon 
defect of uterance.* 

* Bishop Wilkins, in his 'Esay towards a real character,' has enumerated 
the aspirated I and r, among the provincial vices of speech, and has alotted 
literal symbols to them. 



108 ALPHABETIC ELEMENTS. 

The Atonies, from the unfitness for intonation that furnished 
the etymology of their name, aford no vocal means for the rad- 
ical and vanish. Most of them have a perceptible vocule, con- 
sisting of a short aspiration like the whispering of e-rr. They 
liave no tunable sound; with only a power of prolongation, 
on a poor material: and tho inferior in most of the purposes 
of speech, to the other elementsj it will be shown in treating 
of Expresion, that the Aspiration is both significative, and em- 
phatic. 

The enumeration under the preceding divisions includes all the 
elementary sounds of the English language, that apart from ques- 
tionable and unimportant refinements, have been noticed by ob- 
servant authors. 

Three of the subtonics, 6, d> and g y and three of the atonies, h y 
p, and t, when utered before a tonic have eminently an explosive 
character ; the subtonic bursting from its oclusion into the tonic. 
They have peculiar purposes in speech, and being distinguished as 
a subdivision, may be caled Abrupt elements. At the begining of 
a sylable they produce a suden opening of the suceeding tonic ; 
and at the end, they exhibit a final vocule. The efect of these 
abrupt elements in the art of speaking, will be shown in treating 
of Expresion. 

The foregoing arangement of the elementary sounds was devised, 
to give a general view of their respective relationships to intona- 
tion. For a further development of this subject, I now describe 
particularly, the structure and functions of the Tonics. 

In ilustrating the character of the radical and vanishing move- 
ment, it was shown that the tonic a-le, utered in the maner then 
directed, rises with its two kinds of sound, thru the interval of a 
tone or wider interval ; the radical begining on a, and the vanish 
diminishing to a close on e. Now as all the tonic sounds necesarily 
pass by the radical and vanish, they demand an analysis rela- 
tively to it. 

These seven of the tonic elementsj 

a-we, a-rt, a-n, a-le, i-sle, o-ld, cw-r, 
have respectively, diferent sounds at their two extremes. 



ALPHABETIC ELEMENTS. 109 

The remaining fivej 

ee-1, oo-ze, e-rr, e-nd, i-n, 

have each, one unaltered sound thruout their concrete. 

The tonics may therefore be properly divided into Dipthongs 
and Monothongs. 

The dipthong a-we has for its radical the nominal sound of a, 
in a-we ; its vanish is a short and obscure sound of the mono- 
thong e-rr. 

A-vt has for its radical the nominal sound of a, in a-rt ; its 
vanish, like that of the preceding, being the short and obscure 
sound of e-rr. 

The radical of a-n is the nominal sound of a, in a-n. Its vanish 
is the same in degree and kind as the last. 

The sound of each of these elements has heretofore been con- 
sidered homogeneous; for their vanish being feeble in ordinary 
uterance, it has escaped perception. But in earnest and prolonged 
interogation, these dipthongs will severaly terminate at a high 
pitch, in a faint sound of e-rr. 

A-le, as shown formerly, has its radical, with the distinct sound 
of the monothong ee-1 for its vanishing movement. 

J-sle has its radical, folowed in like maner by a vanish of the 
monothong ee-1. The dipthongal character of i y has long been 
known, and the discovery of it is atributed to Wallis the gram- 
marian. It is described by Sheridan and others, as consisting of 
a-we and ee-1 ; the coalescence of the two producing the peculiar 
sound of i. In this acount, it is admited that the element is 
peculiar; there is therefore no need of reference to a-we, in the 
theory of its causation. A skilful ear will readily percevej the 
radical of isle is a peculiar tonic, and ascribe it to a peculiar 
mechanism of its own. 

O-ld has its radical in the sound of o, formerly suposed to be 
homogeneous. Its vanish is the distinctly audible sound of the 
monothong oo-ze. 

Ou-r has a radical, folowed in like maner by a vanish of the 
monothong oo-ze. That the first sound of this dipthongal tonic is 
not a-we, but a radical of its own, may easily be proved to a dis- 
criminating ear ; for it will be learned by experiment, that a-we 



110 ALPHABETIC ELEMENTS. 

does not unite with oo-ze, by the easy gliding transition heard in 
the junction of the true radical of ou-r with the same oo-ze. 

I have been at a loss what to say of the sound signified by oi 
and oy, as in voice and boy. It may be looked upon as a dip- 
thongal tonic, consisting of the radical a-we, and of the vanish- 
ing monothong i-n when the quantity of the element is short, and 
of ee-l when long. But from the habit of the voice, it is dificult 
to give a-we without ading its usual vanish e-rr ; and this makes 
the compound a tripthong. If taken as a dipthongal tonic, this 
is the only instance in which the same radical has two diferent 
vanishes. And tho this shud not be conclusive against its clasi- 
fication, it mit make a subject for inquiry. In case the sound 
shud be considered as a true dipthongal tonic, and analogies seem 
in favor of it, the number of tonics would be thirteen, and the 
whole of the elements thirty-six. This point is however scarcely 
worth the time of doubting, much less of dispute. 

The seven radical sounds with their vanishes described, include, 
as far as I observe, all the elementary dipthongs of the English 
language. In the comon scholastic definition, the terms dipthong 
and tripthong mean a combination respectively of two or of three 
visible letters, not a fluent union of phonetic elements. Acording 
to the foregoing history, and under our view, the term dipthong 
denotes the transition of the voice from one tonic sound to another ; 
forming the impulse of one sylable, by a continued gliding, with- 
out a perceptible change of organic efort, in the transition. By 
the term elementary, aplied to a dipthong, I mean to point out the 
inseparable bond of its constituents ; the ordination or the habit, 
whichever it may be, of the voice, having so decrede the series of 
the two sounds, that the first or radical cannot be utered without 
terminating in the second or vanish. 

The remaining five tonics are monothongs, and have one kind 
of sound for both the radical and vanishing movements. They 
arej 

oo-ze, ee-l, e-rr, e-nd, i-n. 

The element ee-l deliberately utered as a question with earnest 
surprise, has the same unvaried sound from the radical outset, to 
the end of its vanish. One of the forms of interogation will be 



ALPHABETIC ELEMENTS. Ill 

shown hereafter to be the interval of a radical and vanishing 
octave ; and the same homogeneous course of ee-1 may be heard 
on the fifth, third, tone, and semitone. This maner of displaying 
the course of the unchanged concrete in ee-1, will show the like 
uniformity of sound in each of the other monothongs, with the 
exception of i-n. This element has its distinct and proper sound, 
only in short sylables ; and by prolongation, is changed into ee-1. 
We leave others to consider it, if they please, as a short and abrupt 
utterance of ee-\. 

The diference between these two classes of tonics, as here 
described, may be otherwise shown. We learned in the last sec- 
tion, the distinction between the equable concrete of speech, and 
the protracted radical and protracted vanish of song. When the 
dipthongs are sung with a protracted vanish, the voice quickly 
leaves the radical, and dwels in a continued note on the diferent 
sound of the vanish. The protracted note, in the vanish of a 
monothong, is the same in sound as the radical. 

Another ilustration of the real dipthongal character of seven 
of the tonics, may be drawn from the phenomena of rhyme. 
Rhyme is a well known relationship in the sound of sylablesj 
consisting, in most cases, of a diference between the first elemental 
sound of each of the compared sylables, with an identity between 
all the subsequent elemental sounds, each to each; the agreable 
effect of rhyme depending chiefly on the particular relations of the 
tonic sounds. The first is the relation of tonics strictly identical, 
asj dame, came. The second, of tonics with a diferent radical, 
but the same vanishing movement, asj cars, wars. The third, ol 
tonics difering both in their radicals and vanishes, yet of nearest 
resemblance in their kind of vocality, asj good, blood. 

The use of the second kind of rhyme shows the composition of 
the dipthongal tonics. In the folowing lines, the corespondence 
of oo-ze, in doom, with o-ld, in home ; and of a-le, in obey, with 
ee-1, in tea, is admited as canonical, from an identity of the van- 
ishes of a-le and o-ld, respectively with the monothongs ee-1 and 
oo-ze. 

Here Britain's statesmen oft the fall foredoom 

Of foreign tyrants, and of nymphs at home ; 

Here thou, great Anna ! whom three realms obey, 

Dost sometimes counsel takej and sometimes tea. 



112 ALPHABETIC ELEMENTS, 

The asimilation of the sounds of a-le and ee-1, by the identity 
of their vanishes, in the four folowing rhymes^ together with an 
inflexible prosaic rythmus, in the last couplet, produces the mo- 
notony and the want of elegance in the example. 

Swift to the Lock a thousand sprites repair, 
A thousand wings, by turns, blow back the hair ; 
And thrice they twitch'd the diamond in her ear; 
Thrice she looked back, and thrice the foe drew near. 

Besides the diferences arising from singlenes of sound, and from 
dipthongal combination, the tonics exhibit a variety in time both 
when utered separately, and in sylabic conection. Two general 
divisions may be made. 

^i-we, a-rt, a-n, a-le, ee-l> isle, ou-r, oo-ze, 

may be caled long* 

6-rr, e-nd, and z-n, 

short tonics. It is not to be suposedj the later may not by de- 
signed efort be made as long as the former : they have their places 
in this arangement, from their usual time in English sylables. By 
prolongation, i-n changes nearly if not entirely into ee-1 : and as 
it seems to owe its character in short pronunciation, to its ab- 
ruptness, it might be merged in ee-1, and rejected as a distinct 
element. When the long tonics are combined with other elements 
into sylables, their time is of every distinguishable degree, from a 
momentary impulse to the longest pasionate uterance of an inter- 
jection, asj from o-tt to a- we, from ou-t to h-ow, from a-t to a-h ! 
from a-te to h-ay, p-ea-t to ee-1, f-oo-t to oo-ze, c-a-rt to a-rms, 
k-i-te to isle. 

The time of the short tonics in combination, has much less va- 
riety. But however rapidly any of the tonics may be pronounced, 
they do even in their least duration, still pass by the concrete 
movement. 

All the elements except the abrupt atonies Jc, p, t, have a variety 
in duration. The vocality of the subtonics affords the means of 
their time, and its prolongation is next in importance to that of 
the tonics, for the purposes of correct and elegant speech. 

Should it be askedj why the dipthongs are here designated as 



ALPHABETIC ELEMENTS. 113 

elementary, when each may be resolved into greater simplicity, it 
may be answeredj the dipthongs, being compounded of different 
successive sounds, are yet inseparable in utterance : and regarding 
an element as a single impulse of the voice, the dipthong must be 
classed with it. I cannot pronounce the radical of a dipthong 
without in some manner, giving also its vanish. The radical may 
be indefinitely sustained on its level line of pitch, and we may 
attempt to cut it off by a sudden occlusion of the voice ; still it 
can be terminated only by a glide thru the vanish, which, however 
quick, or feeble, or varied by aspiration or otherwise, from its 
proper sound, may still be heard. In the equable concrete of 
speech, the rapid pronunciation of a dipthong, and the feebleness 
of its vanish, may lessen the audibility of this second soundj yet 
to an attentive ear it will not be altogether lost. And further, 
not only does the radical of a dipthong demand its own peculiar 
vanish, but it cannot be made on a given interval without sliding 
into that vanish. For in exercising a concrete octave on the dip- 
thong a-we or a-lej tho its radical may by effort be continued up 
to the seventh of the scalej the final close on the eighth will un- 
avoidably turn respectively to e-rr or ee-\. A similar change takes 
place on all smaller intervals, in an endeavor to make monothongs 
of the dipthongal radicals. 

If an elementary character should be denied to the dipthongs, 
by regarding them as separable sounds, it would not increase the 
number of simple tonics beyond twelve ; for the Reader may have 
already remarked j the vanishing portions of the dipthongs consist 
exclusively of the monothongs. 

It follows, from what has been said on the indivisible sound 
of the dipthongs, that radicals cannot be united with any other 
vanishes, than those already ordained in the practice of the voice : 
and notwithstanding what has been observed, transcribed, and 
assumed by writers on the subject of the dipthongal union of the 
vowels, the instances here enumerated appear to be all belonging 
to English speech. Other combinations want the smooth transi- 
tion and singleness of sylabic impulse, characterizing a dipthong, 
and heard perfectly united, only in the double sound of the above 
named seven elementary tonics. 

As the dipthongal tonics are respectively produced by joining a 



114 ALPHABETIC ELEMENTS. 

monothong to a radical of different sound, and as all the possible 
permutations of their union are not employed, we may inquire^ if 
it is within the power of the voice to make a greater number of 
dipthongs than here enumerated, by uniting, severally, every mon- 
othong with each radical tonic. As there are seven radicals and 
five monothongs, we might upon this scheme, have thirty-five dip- 
thongs. It appears however, we have only eight, supposing oi to 
be included : the radical of a-we, as stated above, being by this 
supposition, severally combinable with two monothongs, and each 
of the rest with one. Other combinations may be made; but they 
have not a fluent transition, like those w^hich already belong to the 
language and have their literal symbols. Would these new com- 
binations call for a management of voice not altogether instinctive, 
and therefore requiring a practice and skill, not yet reached in 
English speech ? Have any of these supposed dipthongs been ad- 
mitted among the alphabetic elements of other nations ? And are 
these unused materials of the voice to be classed with those re- 
sources destined to afford their benefits upon some new revolution 
with the widening demands of the human inteligencej when the in- 
tellect, turned from its perversions, and restored to nature's intended 
rules, shall, with an exalted choice, prefer sobriety of thot to its 
intoxication, and cease to love fiction better than truth ? In re- 
garding the construction of the dipthongs, we may under another 
view, consider them as proper sylables compounded of a tonic and 
subtonic ; since the monothongs as vanishes to the radical tonics, 
have in some degree the character of subtonics ; and then lose the 
radical fulness they have when uttered alone. The vanish of a-le 
is very nearly alied to y-e, if not identical with it ; and the vanish 
of ou-t bears as near a relation to w-o. It will be evident too on 
trial, that if a radical character is given to these vanishes, they do 
not unite with the previous radical into one dipthongal impulse of 
the voice. And may we under this view, askj if the other mono- 
thongs, when modified by subtonic coalescence, mit be severaly 
joined with our present radicals, and even with one another, and 
be formed into new dipthongal sylables ? 

In a former part of this section it was saidj the true elemental 
subtonics are independent sounds ; uterable without the c help of 
a vowel ' or tonic; contrary to the common gramatical definition 



ON SYLABICATION. 115 

of a consonant; their own obscure vocalities bearing respectively, 
a resemblance to those of the five monothongs. Hence some 
sylables may be formed exclusively by subtonics. In the words 
bidde-n, i-dle, schis-m, ryth-m, rive-n, scru-ple, and words of like 
construction, the last sylable is either purely subtonic, or a combi- 
nation of subtonic and atonic. And if these final sylables do go 
thru the radical and vanishing movement, they are far inferior in 
quality, abruptnes, eutony and force, to the full display of these 
properties on the tonics. The reason why words of this construc- 
tion are necesarily divided into two sylables, will apear in the 
folowing section. 



SECTION IV. 

Of the influence of the Radical and Vanishing Movement, in the 
production of the various phenomena of Sylables. 

The foregoing history of elementary sounds and of the radical 
and vanishing movement, will enable us to explain some of the 
phenomena of Sylabication. 

What are the particular functions of the voice that produce the 
characteristics of sylables ? 

What determines their length ? 

Why are sylables limited in length, otherwise than by the term 
of expiration: and what produces their ordinary length, when 
there is no obstruction to the further continuation of the sound of 
tonic and subtonic elements ? 

And finalyj what prescribes the rule that alows but one acent to 
a sylable ? 

I shall answer these questions by the principles of vocal analy- 
sis, showingj 

That an elemental sound, or the order of elemental sounds caled 
a sylable, is a necesary efect, or acompaniment of the radical 
and vanishing movement; and every sylable consisting of one 
or more of these sounds, derives its singlenes of impulse, and 



116 ON SYLABICATION. 

its respective length, from certain relations between this con- 
crete movement and the various tonic, subtonic, and atonic ele- 
ments. As the Header cannot have from me, vocal exemplifica- 
tion of this subject j a decision upon the argument contained in the 
Mowing conditions and inferences is left to his own experimental 
inquiry. 

If the radical and vanishing movement of the voice thru a 
tone or other interval, is an esential function of a sylable, it 
folows that each of the tonics may by itself, form a sylable : 
since they cannot be pronounced singly, without going thru the 
radical and vanish. Now the tonics are employed for mono- 
sylabic words, in eye, a, awe ; for interjective particles, in oh, 
ah; and for mono-literal sylables, as in a-corn, ow-rang, o-ver, 
e-vade. 

It folows also from the asumed causation of a sylable, that two 
of the tonics cannot be united into one vocal impulse. For each 
having its own radical and vanish, they must produce two sepa- 
rate sylables. Consistently with this, whenever two elementary 
tonics adjoin, they always belong to different sylables in pronun- 
ciation, as in a-e-rial, o-a-sis, and i-o-ta. 

If the radical and vanish alone of the voice makes a sylable 
what it isj it folows that the atonies being incapable of that 
function, cannot make a new and distinct sylabic impulse when 
joined with the tonics. The word speaks exhibits the meaning of 
this inference. For the sylabic concrete is here made on a short 
sound of the tonic ee-l ; while, s, p, h and s, add to the time, but 
do not destroy the monosylabic character of that word. It is 
true, the s on each extreme is a distinct sound, but having no 
radical and vanish, it has no more the character of a sylable 
than the hising of a water-jet ; and therefore does not interfere 
with the singlenes of impulse. The voice in this word is not 
so gliding as on a single tonic, which shows a sylable in its purest 
form ; yet this obstruction is very diferent from that of the three- 
fold division, in the word Ohio. For when this is pronounced 
with a radical and vanish on each of its tonics, they cannot be 
contracted into one undivided sound. In answer then to the first 
questionj It is the concrete, modified by the several elements, that 
produces the characteristics of those impulses caled sylables. 



ON SYLABICATION. 117 

Sylables are of (liferent lengths. Is this an arbitrary variation, 
or is it the unavoidable efect of the concrete function, and of the 
elementary sounds ? 

This question is not asked in reference to prosodial quanti- 
ties; nor to those emphatic prolongations of voice, that give 
force or solemnity to oratorical expresion. It regards especialy 
the diference of length in sylables, created by their elementary 
constituents ; for it will be shown that the limit of a sylable is 
determined by the character and arangement of these, within the 
concrete. 

To render this subject perspicuous, let us take a synthetic view 
of the literal series in words. 

Several of the tonics, as shown above, individualy and alone 
form words and sylables. These exhibit the sylabic impulse of 
the radical and vanish in its Simple condition ; and their length 
may equal that of the time of expiration ; forming a few excep- 
tions to the limitation of extent, in all other sylables. But ele- 
ments cannot be combined with a view to lengthen a sylable, by 
the adition of one tonic to another ; for this would produce a new 
and separate impulse. 

A combination of elements, with relation to the length of syla- 
bles, is made under the folowing circumstances of their character, 
and position. When to the element a-le the atonic / is prefixed, 
the sylable fa is formed with the concrete rise on a preceded by 
the atonic aspiration. If to these the atonic s should be subjoined, 
the word fas (face) will be longer than the combined elements / 
and a ; still the triple compound will be one sylable, having only 
one concrete rise. For tho these two atonies may be clearly heard 
as part of the length of the sylable, yet being incapable of the 
concrete function, the radical and vanish of the given interval 
is made altogether on a, as if the word consisted of that element 
alone. The adition of atonies to tonics both prefixed and subjoined 
is then the first maner of increasing the length of a sylable, 
without destroying its singlenes of impulse. 

Further, when to the tonic a, the subtonic I is prefixed, the 
sylable la is longer than a, yet has only one radical and vanish. 
It was said formerly, that with a subtonic before a tonic, the 
vanish of the subtonic does not ocur ; for when the subtonic is 



118 ON SYLABICATION. 

prolonged, it continues on one level line of pitch, till its vocule 
opens into the tonic, which then begins the intended interval with 
its radical, and completes it with its vanish ; but in comon uter- 
ance, the vocule of the subtonic breaks at once into the radical 
of the tonic, which in this case begins as well as completes the 
interval. In the sylable la, I does begin the impulse with its 
Vocality, and imediately, without perceptible rise or prolongation, 
joins the vocality of a; a then opening, from the vocule of I, with 
a full emphatic radical, rises and vanishes on the e of its uper ex- 
treme. If to la the subtonic v should be subjoined, the compound 
lav (lave) will be longer than la ; yet its sylabic character will be 
preserved, by the singlenes of its radical and vanish. In the 
pronunciation of lav, the intonation of I and a will be as before, 
except that a, with its joint e, still perfect as a dipthong, will not 
now rise so high on the concrete ; for a subtonic being capable of 
the gliding concrete, v will in this case unite with the e of the dip- 
thong before it reaches the uper limit of the interval, and complete 
the vanish of the sylable. The junction of subtonic elements with 
tonics, both in pre and post position is therefore a second manner 
of ading to the length of a sylable, without destroying the unity 
of the radical and vanishing concrete. 

Moreover, if the abrupt element t be prefixed to a, the sylable 
ta will be but a single impulse. If g be subjoined, the word tag 
will still have only one radical and vanish. In this way, two 
abrupt atonies joined with short tonics, in cut, pet, tik, produce the 
shortest sylables in the language ; yet here the concrete movement, 
however short, is still performed^ the radical of the tonic, opening 
from the first abrupt element, and the vanish being sudenly cut-off, 
by closing on the last. This prefixing and subjoining of abrupt 
elements with tonics is a third maner of preserving the singlenes 
of impulse in a sylable, under the variation of its length. 

The three diferent sorts of combination described above, pro- 
duce their various lengths, in the maner represented by the exam- 
ples under each head. But none of them can be much extended 
beyond the given instances, while they are restricted to the kind 
of elements employed in their respective cases. 

A fourth maner of combining elements is by a union of all the 
different kinds, in one sylable. To ilustrate this, we have only to 



ON SYLABICATION. 119 

consider, that whenever a subtonic is folowed by a pause, conse- 
quently whenever it is utered singly, or at the end of a sylablej 
it unavoidably asumes the concrete movement ; and that the same 
takes place when a subtonic is folowed by an atonic, as in this 
case there is a termination of vocality ; which in efect, is equivalent 
to a pause. In each of the words strange, (properly strandzh) and 
strength, and the suposed sylable sglivzd, there is but one radical 
and vanishing movement ; and the singlenes of impulse is owing 
to the peculiar arangement of the diferent kinds of elements. 
Each consists of seven sounds, and this is perhaps the greatest 
number the varied character of the elements alows to a sylable, 
even with the best contrived combination. The radical and vanish 
of these several sylables is made on ange, eng and ivzd, and the 
principle of vocal management of the other elements is the same 
in each ; for r and I being subtonics respectively before the tonics 
a-le, e-nd, and i-le, do not take-on the concrete. T "being an ab- 
rupt atonic, adds nothing to the vocality of r, and the preceding 
atonic s, having no concrete function, the three elements s, t, and 
r, in strange, and strength, and the s, g and I in the suposed syl- 
able, slightly lengthen the begining of these several words, with- 
out destroying the unity of their impulses ; while the n, d, and zh, 
the ng, the v, z, and d, which respectively folow the tonics, a, e, 
and i, take up the concrete movement from these tonics, and severaly 
complete the vanish of the single sylabic impulse. The final atonic 
th, in strength, only adds to the time of that word, without bearing 
part in the concrete. The constituents in each of the above words 
may be combined into one sylable, in other series : but in all cases, 
the atonies must be on the extremes. If otherwise, as in the ar- 
rangement rstange, the whole cannot be pronounced as one sylable. 
For the vocality of r, ceasing on acount of the subsequent atonic s, 
this r must take on the concrete movement, and become a sylable. 
The Eeader may remember, it was saidj the subtonics are capable 
of the radical and vanish when utered separately ; and the termi- 
nation of their sound by an atonic, produces this condition. In 
the above combinations, and in such sylables as marl, lorn, and bold, 
the subtonics unite smoothly not only with the radical, and with 
the vanish of a tonic, but they themselves unite, in their concrete 
movement, smoothly with each other. Nor is it obvious, why the 



120 



ON SYLABICATTON. 



oclusion of the subtonics should not in this last case, interfere with 
the gliding of the sylabic concrete. 

I have endeavored to show, that the various lengths of sylables 
depend on the kind and arangement of their constituent elements, 
in the execution of the radical and vanish. 

The folowing notation may ilustrate the preceding acount of the 
structure of sylables. This scheme represents the movement of a 



^ ^ 2 



5 a •- 



H»i c 



a rfl g 

H '£ rO 

<3 <j 



L_^LJ..VJ.../l^i-^X./_L.^] 



A-e 



F-A-e F-A-e-s L-A-e L-A-e-v T-A-e T-A-e-k 



A combination of each of the 
species of elements. 

■• •* 



• » • a^a^y? — 



St — r-andzh 



St — r-eng — th 



The double sylabic 
impulse by change. 



4^i- 



R-r st — andzh 



third ; but it is the same in all intervals. The doted line denotes 
the atonic aspiration. The thick black line united to the radical 
denotes a prolonged note of the subtonic, when it precedes a tonic, 
and opens into its radical. It is marked as a line, to represent its 
vocality, and to distinguish it from the doted points of the atonies 
or aspirations. In ordinary uterance without emphatic extension, 
this line is of but momentary length. The full black radical, with 
its isuing apendage, signifies the tonic alone, or the tonic in com- 
bination with a vanishing subtonic. 

In this notation, the atonic sounds are represented by the doted 
lines, in certain places of pitch. Aspirations however, have no 
apreciable relation to the pitch of the tonics and subtonics ; and I 
beg the Reader may so regard the notation, where the atonic sym- 
bols are used to show the presence of the aspirated voice. 

If the principle of sylabication does not depend on a restriction 
by the concrete, and on the kind and position of the elements, 
here asignedj a single sylable might contain an indefinite number 
of tonic sounds, combined with such other elements as have no 



ON SYLABIC ATION. 121 

marked oclusion; and consequently, the length of the sylable 
would be limited only by the time of expiration; the posibility of 
which case will be considered presently. But from the influence 
of the radical and vanish, in the comon agregates of elementary 
sounds, the duration of a sylable is quickly arested. Of the twelve 
tonics; fourteen subtonics; nine atonies; and six abrupt elements, 
the nine atonies and the three abrupt subtonics, being productive 
of an interuption to the continuity of the sylabic impulsej the 
promiscuous mingling of all the elements must give one of these 
an average position in every third or fourth place among the tonics 
and subtonics, and thereby set a limit to the duration of sylabic 
sound. Sometimes this interuption produces sylables of two ele- 
ments only ; and it has never perhaps in the English language, 
alowed any sylable in use, to have more than seven. 

The cause why the words strange and strength cannot be made 
longer, without more than ordinary efort, is this. Tonic elements 
cannot be aded, as no two of them can be united into one vocal 
impulse. Nor will these words bear a subtonic at the begining ; 
for s being an atonic, and producing a pause, any subtonic utered 
before it must therefore go thru its radical and vanish and form a 
separate sylable. An atonic prefixed to these words would not 
make a new concrete, but would produce a varying efort of hising 
and aspiration, bearing no resemblance to the easy gliding of tonic 
and subtonic sylabication. 

In answer then to the question^ why sylables are not continued 
to the utmost length of an act of expiration, it has been shown, 
that as speech employs all the elements, the abrupt and atonic 
must necesarily divide the time of one expiration into diferent 
sylabic impulses. 

From the four kinds of elementary sounds employed in the con- 
struction of sylables, let us now supose the atonic and abrupt to be 
rejected, and consequently the last mentioned cause of limitation 
to be removed. Why is it imposible in this case, to give indefi- 
nite length to a sylable formed by the union of a tonic with any 
number of subtonics ? Or, why is such a sylable otherwise limited 
than by the term of expiration ? 

When a tonic precedes a subtonic in the formation of a concrete 
interval, it gives up a portion of its concrete movement to the sub- 
9 



122 ON SYLABICATION. 

tonic, which then caries on and completes the vanish. In this way, 
the radical and vanish may consist of a tonic and one, two, three, 
or at most, four subtonics. But the number cannot in easy pro- 
nunciation, be extended beyond these. In the sylable strandzh 
(strange) the concrete rise begins on a, and continuing thru n, d 
and zh, vanishes on the last. With two more subtonics v and m, 
subjoined to this word, as in strandzhvm, few speakers could make 
one pure sylabic impulse of the combination. The cause of this 
dificulty, or as we may call it, imposibility, will apear in the 
folowing remarks. 

In an ordinary use of the voice, the concrete rises or falls thru 
the intervals of a tone, or third, or fifth ; and employs therein a 
certain portion of time. The concrete and the time of these in- 
tervals may be executed on one tonic, combined with several sub- 
tonics ; yet there is a limit to the number, uterable by an easy efort 
in corect speech. For each constituent requiring a certain dura- 
tion, to render it conizable as a variation of pitchj and to insure 
distinct pronunciation, each should consume a portion of the time 
of the concrete; and it is found 3 each constituent does consume so 
much, that not more than four subtonics together with the preced- 
ing tonic, can in easy uterance be compressed into the time and 
space of the radical and vanish, or of the wave. 

In pronouncing a combination of tonics and subtonics, greater 
than can be included in a single concrete, or a wavej either two 
sylables must be formed by two separate concretes, or some one of 
the tonic or subtonic constituents must be protracted on one line 
of pitch. And tho this last would not necesarily produce two syl- 
ables, yet by asuming the characteristic note of song, it would be 
very diferent from the efect of the truly equable sylabic-concrete 
of speech, and therefore not to be regarded in the question before 
us. Admitting, a sylable might be prolonged, to the extent of 
expiration, on what we called in the second section, a continued 
wave ; still the prolongation being here made on a single tonic or 
subtonic of the sylabic compound, the case would not be regarded 
by the rule of sylabic combination ; or would only be, as we re- 
marked above of a solitary tonic, an exception to it. 

I have shown why, in ordinary speech, sylables cannot be in- 
definitely extended, when they consist only of tonic and subtonic 



ON SYLABICATION. 123 

sounds, and consequently when there is no obstruction to their 
continuation, by the interposition of abrupt and atonic elements. 

A further consideration of the radical and vanishing movement, 
will inform us why there is, ordinarily, but one efort of acentual 
stres on each sylable. We learned in the last section that the form 
of force called Acent, is variously laid on the concrete. First, by 
the abrupt explosion of the radical. Second, by magnifying, so 
to speak, the whole of the concrete, the proportional forces of the 
radical and vanish remaining unaltered. Third, by giving more 
fulnes to the midle of the concrete. Fourth, by an abrupt stres on 
the radical, together with an increased force on the vanish of the 
same concrete. Fifth, by greater stres on the vanishing portion. 
Sixth, by making the whole concrete of the same fulnes as the 
radical. Five of these forms do not alter the singlenes of the 
acentual impresion. Something like an exception to the rule of a 
single acent seems to exist in the fourth, as will be particularly 
noticed under the future head of Expresion. This condition if an 
exception, being of rare ocurence, is by no means contemplated 
here, in looking at the ordinary phenomena of sylabic speech. 

From what has been said, the Reader may perceve the diference 
among sylables, in their tunable quality, and in the gliding con- 
tinuity of voice. The most agreeable in both respects, are those 
formed by a single tonic ; and altho the concrete rise of a dipthong 
consists of two dissimilar sounds, it is not inferior in the above 
named characteristics, to the uniform voice of a monothong. 

The next degree of eutony or agreeable voice in a sylable is 
that formed by an initial tonic, folowed by one or two subtonics, 
asj aim, ale, arm, earn, elm, orle. These have with an agreable 
vocality, an easy mingling of their constituents ; their tonic com- 
encement, and subtonic vanish alowing an equable concrete move- 
ment, from the opening to the close of the sylable. 

The gliding continuity is, to a certain degree, impaired in that 
order of elements, where the first sound is a subtonic, as in maims, 
gale, warm, zearn, realm. As the radical in these cases does not 
properly begin on the first element, there may be in careles pro- 
nunciation, a slight Note or level line of pitch, in the uterance of 
the subtonic preceding the tonic. 

The next of the sylabic combinations contain each of the thre 



124 ON SYLABICATION. 

kinds of elements, asj swarms, strength, thrown, smiles. Here the 
atonic sounds are not agreable. They obscure the character of 
the concrete movement ; and destroying its singlenes of impulse, 
are attended with some hiatus, from the changes of position in 
the organs that produce them. 

A few sylables such as the last of lit-tle are made of subtonics 
and atonies, without the adition of a tonic. They are altogether 
without force and fulnes in the radical opening ; and have a slight 
nasal vocality, which is most remarkable in this case, from its not 
being modified by sylabic union with the clear laryngeal sound of 
the tonics. 

The sylabic impulse has various degrees of smoothnes and 
eutony, from the perfect coalescence of the two constituents of a 
dipthongal tonic, when utered alone as a sylablej to the transition 
thru a concrete compounded of all the elements. There is a 
peculiarity in the structure, and a hiatus in the pronunciation of 
certain words, from their aparently embracing two concretes in 
the same sylable. The words flower, higher, boy, voice, and coin, 
by a slight variation in efort, may each be utered either as one or 
as two sylables. Under the first condition, they seem severaly to 
consist of the union of two tonics in one sylable, which is im- 
posible. When flower is pronounced with a single impulse, it 
must be upon the elements, /, I, ou, and r, and this acords with 
our history of sylabication. When the tonic e-rr is sounded before 
r, the double impulse cannot be avoided, as in flow-er. 

We have considered the sylable as esentialy a function of the 
radical and vanish ; this function being equaly productive of the 
sylabic impulse, in a downward as in an upward direction. And 
it will be further shown in a future section, when the Reader is 
prepared for the explanation, that the unity of a sylable is not 
destroyed by a movement of the voice in continuity from the 
upward into the downward concrete, in what we call the Wave. 

By the light of the preceding analysis, we may perceve causes 
that might otherwise be hiden. We account for the disagreable 
efect, produced both in uterance, and on the ear, by the use of the 
indefinite article a, before a vowel (or tonic,) and by other similar 
succesions ; as in aorta. 

When we uter the tonics in series, we may smoothly pass from 



ON SYLABICATION. 125 

one to the other without a break, and without a point of junction 
being apreciable. In this case, the elements are joined to each 
other by the mediation of the subtonic y-e ; as in enumerating the 
vowelsj «, ye, yi, yo, yu. For the subtonic having a slight oclu- 
sion with its consequent vocule, means are afforded by this occlu- 
sion, and by the outset of the vocule, to give a full opening to 
the tonic : and thus, a true radical may be made on a tonic con- 
tinuous with a preceding subtonic. When we atempt to join the 
article a, to a tonic at the beginning of a folowing word, an un- 
pleasant perception arises from a want of that oclusion and vocule 
in the tonic article a, which in the subtonic n would give an open- 
ing radical fulness to the initial tonic of the word. Should the 
article be pronounced short and separately, with a pause after it, 
that the initial tonic may have a full radical opening of its own 
after the pause, the unpleasant efect will in a degree, be avoided, 
tho the uterance will be necesarily delayed. In this way, a, — owl 
and a, — age are nearly as unexceptionable, as an owl and an age. 
The union of n with a tonic, and the same may be said of all the 
subtonics, is an agreable coalescence, from the slight oclusion in 
these elements ; but an atempt to join the vanish of one tonic with 
the radical of another, produces a disagreable efort in the organs, 
and an unpleasant impresion on the ear. This hiatus, or dificulty 
in articulation, is caused by a want of the fulnes of the suceding 
radical ; by an endeavor to suply this deficiency, and yet at the 
same time to pass quickly from tonic to tonic ; and by the dis- 
apointment of the ear, in not receving the full impresion of the 
radical, as it is heard in the same word on other ocasions. We 
cannot then, in a proximate succesion of tonics, produce that 
desirable radical abruptnes, which is easily acomplished when the 
tonics are pronounced with a pausal rest between them, or after 
the slight oclusive pause produced by the vocule of the subtonics. 

The hiatus acompanying the junction of one tonic with another, 
will be less remarkable when the last receves no acentual force. It 
is less in a acount, than in a acident : for in the first example, a 
full degree of radical abruptnes in the tonic a is not required. 

From the hiatus in the above individual instance of the meting 
of two vowels, we are led to observe the general means for coales- 
cence, and the general causes of hesitation betwen the elements, 



126 ON SYLABICATION. 

under all other positions and collections in curent speech. One 
form of coalescence is produced by the vanish of a tonic gliding into 
a subtonic ; another by the abrupt breaking of the vocule of a sub- 
tonic into the radical of a tonic. While a common cause of hesi- 
tation, is the meeting of the vanish of one tonic with the radical 
of another. Other causes of both coalescence and of hesitation, 
depending on the character and position of the elements, which by 
the light here thrown upon the subject, the Reader can easily ob- 
serve for himself. The principles of sylabication here founded on 
the radical and vanish, and on the abrupt vocule of the subtonics, 
embrace the above instance of the indefinite article and the initial 
vowel of a following wordj which has long been familiar as a 
single, but not as a general fact or law of speech. This law, under 
its specifications here exemplified, may perhaps be aplied by others, 
to the investigation of the causes of stamering, and other defects 
in articulation. 

From the foregoing view of the essential importance of Abrupt- 
ness, in sylabic articulation, the Reader may learn, why I was 
necesarily directed to make it an independent Mode of the voice. 

Under the sylabic agency of the radical and vanish, the pased 
time and perfect participle of some verbs ending in ed, when con- 
tracted into one sylable, by rejecting the tonic ej change d into t, 
as: snatch-ed, snatch't; passed, passH; stoppH; checFt. For if the 
e be droped, the d having a vocality, and posesing as a subtonic, 
the power of a concrete movement, it must, when preceded by an 
abrupt or atonic element, as sh, s, p, and h, in the above instances, 
have a radical and vanish, and consequently must make another 
tho a subtonic sylable in place of ed. But. if the abrupt atonic t is 
substituted for d, that element having no concrete may by uniting 
with its antecedents, be retained without destroying the singlenes 
of the sylabic impulse. It is however to be remarked, that the 
vocule of t has a l formative efort' towards a sylable, but not sufi- 
cient to produce the efect of one on the ear. 

Those iregular verbs which, by contraction, have their present 
and past times and perfect participle alike, generaly end in t, as : 
beat, kept, hurt, let, left. The economy of uterance, or ocasions for 
poetical measure^ producing a contraction of the regular analogical 
form of beat beated beated, which we may supose to have been the 



ON SYLABICATION. 127 

original structure of the verbj the influence of the radical and 
vanish in sylabication, does not alow the contraction to be made by 
the elision of e. For upon this elision, heated can be changed to 
one s viable, as we have seen above, only by substituting the atonic 
t for the subtonic d, as in beatft ; and this, not being uterable, the 
single word without the last t would be used as the inflection of 
the verb, and as the participle. 

It is perhaps, owing to the unpleasant efect in subjoining s to ch, 
as the sign of the posessive case, that we have no monosylabic 
posessive, in the pronoun which ; and without the hiatus, this real 
want would probably have been long ago conveniently suplied. 
With this dificulty in articulation, we often use an emphatic cir- 
cumlocution, to denote the property of a subject. In the follow- 
ing sentence^ Find me a ring, the diameter of which is ten inches^ 
the word which having a literal composition that makes it audibly 
impresive, and when required, an emphatic relative^ has here, along 
with the preposition, too much of that audible importance, for its 
merely expletive meaning in the sentence ; and in a maner, over- 
bears the principal thought of the ring and its diameter. Yet to 
make it a posessive by elision, as in which' f s, would be even more 
striking. Nor would it be less so, until authorized by custom, to 
employ its suposed original, which its, as with whose (who's) from 
who his, or who hers ; according to the old form of the possessive 
case of nouns. 

It is from the peculiarity of this case, that writers with a deli- 
cate perception of phraseology find those proper ocasions, where 
the less-accented that, as a relative, may be fluently substituted 
for this ear-stamping pronoun. Under the like dificulty the best 
Authors, to avoid awkward or afected aliteration, have sometimes 
employed whose, in reference to things, as a possessive case of 
which. Fortunately however, by a substitutive and variable con- 
struction, the copious resources, and available versatility of our 
language, are suficient to meet all its incidental wants.* 

* The above notice of the impresive efect of the pronoun which, might 
be extended to that doubtful part of speech, because, and to the adverb so. 
These words are in a degree emphatic by their literal sound alone ; and are 
to be employed in the first instance, for directing atention to some important 
motive or agency ; and in the second, for particular stres, when this word 
has an inferential importance. Does the influence depend on the full vocality, 



128 THE MECHANISM 

The foregoing principles may be hereafter applied to explain 
some aparent anomalies in speech, that have hitherto pased with- 
out scrutiny, or without satisfactory interpretation. I have gone 
beyond my original intention, in planing the subject of this sec- 
tion ; and must therefore leave other particulars, to the observation, 
reflection, and time of the inquiring and inteligent Reader. Per- 
haps I do not excede the bounds of fair anticipation, in foreseing 
his rising interest in this history of the voice. But all these things, 
and more too that shall be told, may in looking back from future 
time, apear, in the distance, to have been the preface only to a full 
knowledge of this subjectj if he will adopt the Method of Inquiry 
which has thus far asisted me, or which is in truth the more than 
co-efficient Author of this Work ; if he will become the spy upon 
Nature in his own watchfulnes, and not rely on a careles, and often 
itself a borowed authority ; if he will turn from those discouraging 
prospects, presented by the result of every metaphysical or transcen- 
dental atempt to make knowledge out of notions ; and by entering 
into sober comunion with his own senses, lay himself open to the 
advising of those five ministers of Observation, apointed by Nature 
for his counseling in all inquiry after truth. 



— •*«©< 



SECTION Y. 

Of the Causative Mechanism of the Voice, in relation to its diferent 
Vocalities, and to its Pitch. 

A description of the diferent modes and forms of sound in 
the human voice, without exemplification by actual uterance, is 
always insuficient and often uninteligible. With a view to facili- 
tate instruction, it is desirable to ascertain the conformation of the 
vocal organs, together with the action of the air upon them ; that 

and extended time of their respective tonics, a-11, and o-ld? And do not 
other English words, with a like impressive construction, deserve to be known, 
clased, and thoughtfuly used ? 



OF THE VOICE. 129 

a reference to these forms, and to the impulses of the air, may 
enable an observer to exemplify the description of vocal sounds, 
by using the known physical means that produce them. The 
system of parts which efects this peculiar purpose, is caled the 
Mechanism of the voice. 

The result of physiological inquiry on this subject is not satis- 
factory. Unfortunately, most physiologists have been public 
Teachers, apointed to stations of profit and influence, and required 
to instruct without having always the time, or ability, or dispo- 
sition to investigate. Their condition has obliged them to compile 
without choice, to define and arange without reflection, and to 
afect an originality perhaps forbiden by the character of their 
minds, or the multiplicity of their duties. From these Profesorial 
instructors, the covered movements of the organs of speech seem 
to cut off the means of observation; and feigning themselves 
under a necessity to teach, w^hat they had never learned, they have 
tried to elude the dificulty, by devising some of those works of 
fiction long ago designed by the Craft of Mastership, for satisfy- 
ing the cravings of undiseerning youth. The thotles wishes of 
the scholar have been respectfully regarded by the teacher ; and 
sketches of knowledge from his acomodating pencil have fre- 
quently been rather a worked-out picture of the pupil's vain con- 
ceits and authorities, than of the truth, and nothing but the truth 
of nature. 

The opinions among physiologists, on the mechanism of the 
voice, are many and unconformed ; and by the obligations of phi- 
losophy we are bound to acknowledge much ignorance and eror 
on this subject. We know that the voice is made by the pasage 
of air thru the larynx, and cavities of the mouth and nose. From 
experiments on the human larynx, or on artificial imitations of its 
structure ; and from observations upon the vocal mechanism, by 
exposing the organs in living animalsj it is infered with great 
probability, that voice procedes immediately from the ligaments 
of the glotis. We have no precise knowledge of the causes of 
Pitch ; its formation having been by authors diferently atributed 
to variations in the aperture of the glotis ; to the diference of 
length in its chords ; their varied degrees of tension ; the varying 
velocity of the current of air thru the aperture of the glotis ; the 



130 THE MECHANISM 

rise and fall of the whole larynx, and the consequent variation 
of length in the vocal avenues, between the glottis and the ex- 
ternal limit of the mouth and of the nose; and finaly, to the 
influence of a combination of two or more of these causes. Nor 
are we acquainted with the mechanisms, respectively producing 
those varieties of sound called Vocality, Natural voice, Whisper, 
and Falsete. Each of these varieties has receved some theoretic 
explanation ; and their locality has, without much precision, been 
severaly asigned to the chest, the throat, and the head. 

These discordant and fictional acounts have been in some meas- 
ure, the consequence of conceiting a resemblance, between the 
organs of the voice and comon instruments of music ; and under 
fluctuations of opinion which have represented the vocal mechan- 
ism to be like that of mouthed, or reeded, or stringed instruments, 
the wildnes of these still incomplete analogies has run into out- 
rage of all similitude, by comparing the avenue of the fauces, 
mouth, and nose, to the body of a flute ; and ascribing false into- 
nation, to an inequality of tension between what are called the 
' strings of the glotti.' We are too much disposed to measure the 
resources of nature, by the limited inventions of art. The forms 
and other conditions of mater, which jointly with the motion of 
air may produce sound, must be inumerable ; and it certainly is 
not an enlarged analogical view of the mechanism of the human 
voice, which regards the functions of those few forms only that • 
have receved the 'name of ' musical instruments.' 

The ilustrations these analogies were suposed to aford, have 
been no more than Theoretic resting places for the mind, in the 
perplexing pursuit of truth. The physiologists of antiquity ex- 
plained the mysteries of the voice, by comparing the trachea to a 
musical pipe ; and science reposed from the time of Galen, to that 
of Dodart and Ferrein in the eighteenth century, on the satisfac- 
tion produced by this suposition. The means of ilustration have 
folowed the fashion of instruments, and of late years, the chords 
of the Eolian harp and the reed of the hautboy have furnished 
their mechanical pictures of the vocal organs. One cannot say 
positivelyj a resemblance of the mechanism of the voice, to that 
of some known instrument of music, may not be proved hereafter ; 
but cautious reflection will guard us against surprise on a future 



OF THE VOICE. 131 

discovery, that in most points, the formative causes in the two 
cases are totaly disimilar. Before the use of the baloon for the 
suport and progres of man upon the air, no one ever conceved the 
posibility of his flight, by any other instrumentality than that of 
wings. 

The history of the voice records its exact anatomy, and some 
important physiological experiment, together with inferences from 
the mechanism of musical instruments, aplied without much pre- 
cision, to the human organs. We seem to have been so entirely 
convinced of the analogy between these cases, and have relied so 
implicitly on systems constructed upon it, that we have forgoten 
the importance of unbiased observation. Presumption in sup- 
osing the fulnes of knowledge already acomplished, and despair 
in thinking it unatainable, are equally adverse to the efforts of 
improvement. The panurgic or all-working power of Baconian 
Science directs us by its productive rules, to record all the phe- 
nomena of the voice; and requires us in our clasincations, to 
Icnoiv resemblances and diferences, not to invent them. There is 
no doing without the asistance of Analogiesj as well when look- 
ing into the co-relation of the arts, as in observing the proceses 
of nature. With peculiar adaptation to a varied once, they are 
the all-asistant counselors of intelect, in the discovery of that 
original truth, which they are afterwards to teach and to beautify 
by ilustration : they should not however be confounded with the 
truth itself, which they serve only to develope and adorn. In the 
present inquiry, it might be proper to take into consideration every 
analogy, in artificial instruments of sound ; but when a strict use 
of the senses cannot prove a similarity of mechanism between 
them and the vocal organs, it is no benefit to retain as parts of 
a science, those unfounded means that cannot ilustrate, after they 
have been unsucesfuly used to discover its truth.* 

* After the directive principles of the Novum Organum had acomplished 
much of the promised work of scientific precision, and before they have been 
duly aplied to rectify the erors of every Theoretic Faithj for which they are 
all-suficient, and were prospectively intended^ we are invited to new eforts of 
inquiry, by the aditional method of a J Positive Philosophy,' to assist the pro- 
gresive purpose of its all-suficient prototype. But English and American 
philosophy has too often been deluded into belief of fiction and falsehood, 
under the promise of Positive science, for this Word to aford in our comon 



132 THE MECHANISM 

When I speak of our ignorance of the mechanical causes of the 
different kinds of voice, and of their pitch, let me be clearly com- 
prehended. To know a thing, as this phrase is applied in most of 
the subjects of human inquiry, is to have that opinion of its char- 
acter and cause, which authority, analogical argument, and partial 
observation, prompted by various motives of vanity or interest, may 

language, a favorable omen of exactnes in observation and thot. Nor has 
the flag that bears it as yet waved over any important ' anexation' of truths 
beyond the acquisitions of that Comanding Philosophy, which has gone-the- 
way of victory before it. On the other hand, the Baconian system of obser- 
vation has long hung its baner of science, acros the Newtonian Sky ; and is 
daily bringing from the depths of the earth, the historic leaves of Creation's 
Stone-and- Fossil Book; has raised its trophies of ingenius art, and national 
wealth, over the coal fields of Newcastle, the founderies of Wales, the 
thousand productive engines of Sheffield and Manchester, the wonders of 
locomotive-agency, on every sea, and civilized land j and over that Electric 
tongue, which speaks in a moment, the exchanging purposes of comerce, 
between them all. The power of this philosophy, while it has already fur- 
nished those great physical advantages, still holds within itself, the sure but 
unused power of clearing-up the obscurity of every intelectual and moral 
mystification. 

To those great results of the boundles purposes of the Observative System, 
I presume to join this humble contribution. The succes of that system, on 
our present subject of speech, which has so long resisted all other means of 
inquiry and which has too incautiously been considered, beyond discrimina- 
tionj may inded be only a triumph within the narow field of Vocal Physiology, 
and Taste ; yet. poorly as it may compare with those extended practical achieve- 
ments, it is equaly with them, a triumph in principle and method, of the wise 
and comprehensive design of Baconian science; which, like the unlimited 
circuit of Nature, encompases both the greatest and the least. 

Altho Nature, the just and sole Executrix of Providential Will, knows 
not, in the agency of her laws, the human prompting of Enthusiasm, yet 
we may be pardoned if we should feel it, towards that Mighty Method, 
which by unfolding her works, teaches that for her ceaseles energies she 
never requires it. 

Does truth alure thee? Learn befictioned man, 
At Bacon's word, her dawning light began ; 
Learn how that light's RedSming ray has shined, 
With gleams of whole Salvation o'er the mind. 
And should that Mind to truth's full-light be brought, 
'Twill be their task, who Think as Bacon Thought. 

When the distinguished Poet, and author of the well known and malicious 
epigram, aplied the inconsistent epithets, ' greatest, brightest, and meanest,' to 
one and the same Exalted Intelect, he comitted as great a solecism in his ad- 



OF THE VOICE. 133 

direct. To know, by physical research, we must employ our senses, 
and contrive experiments, on the subject of inquiry ; and admit 
no belief, which may not in its proper way, be made undeniable 
by demonstration. Physiology has too long been led by a fictional 
guide ; and no branch more conspicuously than that of the mech- 
anism of the human voice. One, from the analogy of musical 

jectivesj as he did in his verbs, when describing the mules and wagons return- 
ing from Mount Ida, with wood for the funeral pile of Patroclus^ he has the 
folowing unsucesful atempt to make a prolonged quantity, the verbal sign of 
a cautious animal pace. 

First move the heavy mules securely slow, 

O'er hills, o'er dales, o'er rocks, o'er crags (headlong of course) they go. 

The history of the celebrated line of discordant adjectives^ the joint work 
of Pope and Bolingbrokej is short. 

The great Benefactor while preparing posterity for a full survey of the truth 
and beauty of Nature, hapened, in his Essays', to make the general remark^ 
that deformed persons, regarding themselves as exceptions to the perfect order 
of her Laws, and as objects of pity or scorn 3 endeavor to meet with even-hand 
the hardship of their lot, by a disatisfied and jealous temper towards the world ; 
yet kindly allowingj their condition has sometimes been the incentive to great 
exertion and excelence. It is the malice of the misshapen Poet, aparently 
excited by this remark, that here obliges us to alude unwilingly to his mis- 
fortune ; for on reading this popular Work of the Philosopher, he may from 
the fictional habit of his own mind, together with his poetical egotism, have 
taken the remark as personal to himself, tho then unborn ; and thus have 
joined to his constitutional and pevish iritability, a revengeful disposition 
towards the Author. 

Lord Bolingbroke having furnished Pope with his sententious prose reflec- 
tions, was not by Kank and Title or by Head and Heart, so simply generous 
towards the ' Brightest and Greatest of mankind^ ' sacrificed by the ' smooth 
barbarity ' of King and Courtier, for his venial share of the beseting sins of 
every ambitious public station^ as afterwards to condemn and erase, if he did 
not direct the vindictive couplet of his versifying amanuensis ; but meanly, 
if with jealousy of a superior intelect, left it for any ignorant and self- 
righteous pharise, to quote, and to thank God, on the comparison, that he is 
not like other men, nor even as the High Chancelor Bacon. 

If Pope's gredines of praise, that vicious apetite of prideles and limited 
minds, had led him to turn into heroic measure, the Essays of his great Su- 
perior, instead of Bolingbroke's philosophic generalities, which it is said he 
did not widely comprehendj he would have had clear, broad, and practical 
thots, with all the pith of poetical maxims, to work upon ; and might have 
induced posterity to overlook some of his own contentious vanity, and anoy- 
ing caprices, by an odd comparison of his pigmy share of rhyme and reflec- 
tion, with the greatnes of an Immortal fame. 



134 THE MECHANISM 

strings, supposes Pitch to be produced by the varied tension of 
the chords of the glottisj without showing a correspondence of the 
degrees of tension with the degrees of pitch. Another, that the 
vibration of these chords performs the same functions as the reed 
of the hautboys without showing the manner in which this laryn- 
geal reed fixes the degrees of intonation. A third ascribes the 
pitch of the falsette to the agency of the base of the tongue, the 
fauces, the soft palate, and uvulaj without showing any fixed 
points of relationship, between the parts of this cavernous struc- 
ture and the current of expiration, in the production of concrete 
or discrete pitch. 

When therefore we seek to know the mechanism of the voice, it 
should be, to see, or to be truly told by those who have seen, the 
whole proces of the action of the air on the vocal organs, in the 
production of the vocality, force, pitch, and articulation of speech. 
This method and this alone, produces permanent knowledge ; and 
elevates our belief above the condition of vulgar opinion, and 
sectarian dispute. The visibility of most of the parts concerned 
in Articulation, has long since produced among physiologists, some 
agrement as to the agency of those parts. Yet after all I have 
been able to observe and learn, on the subject of Vocality and 
Pitch, I must in speaking the language of an exact and produc- 
tive philosophy, fairly confes an entire ignorance of their mer 
chanical causations : and the great diference on this point among 
authors, should go far towards destroying respect for most of their 
opinions.* 

This section being adressed principaly to physiologists, I omit 
a description of the organs of the voice, to be found in all the 
manuals of anatomy; and it would be useles to transcribe an 
acount of structures and actions, when we know not with specific 
reference, what vocal efect those actions produce. The general 
statement of our problem is, that some part or parts of the breath- 
ing passages produce all the modes, forms, varieties, and degres of 
the human voice. Anatomy is to describe the structure of these 

* If the Header cannot now agree with me, on the importance of the purely 
observative use of the mind, here recomended for every thing, let him wait 
till he has finished this volume, before he pronounces^ it has been therein 
unproductive. 



OF THE VOICE. 135 

partsj Physiology to explain its actions, that each may be made a 
subject of permanent science. But observation of the living ac- 
tions of this structure has almost universaly thrown the first light 
upon its physiological causes and effects. It has been the part of 
anatomy to confirm or complete our knowledge of them ; agreably 
to the saying of the Greek philosophy, that what is first to nature 
in the act of creation, is the last to man in the labor of inquiry. 
On the subject of the mechanism of the voice, we are yet ocupied 
with the perplexities of analysis ; when that work shall be finished, 
we may begin again with muscles, cartilages, ligaments, mucous 
tisues, and the os hyoides, and describe their actions with the 
synthetic steps of sucesive causation. 

In the meantime, we should not so far folow the example of 
System-makers and Professors, as to furnish an acount of the 
mechanism of the voice, soley because it is desirable and may be 
looked for. Aiming to serve truth with our senses, we should 
describe what is distinguishable by the ear in the diferent kinds 
of voice, together with the visible structure and movement of the 
organs ; in the hope, that by an acknowledgment of our present 
ignorance, and by future observation and experiment, other in- 
quirers may arive at the certainty, which by a different method of 
investigation has never yet been atained. 

The thirty-five elements of speech may be heard under four 
diferent kinds of voice ; the Natural, the Falsete, the Whispering, 
and that improved vocality to be presently described under the 
name of the Orotund. 

The Natural, or what we call Vocality, is employed in ordinary 
speaking. Its compas includes a range of pitch from the lowest 
uterable sound, up to that point at which the voice is said to 
break. At this place the natural ceases, and the higher parts of 
the scale are made by a shriler kind called the Falsete. The 
natural voice is capable of the discrete, the concrete, and the 
tremulous progresion. By the concrete and tremulous move- 
ment, the natural may be continued into the falsete without a 
perceptible point of union : for the concrete rise in vehement in- 
terogation, sometimes pases above the limit of the natural scale, 
and thereby avoids that unpleasant break in the transition to the 
falsete, which in the discrete scale is remarkable both as to sound, 



136 THE MECHANISM 

and to dificulty in executive efort, except with persons of great 
vocal skill. The peculiar defect of vocality and of intonation at 
this point of the discrete scale of song, has receved the name of 
1 false note/ 

The natural voice is said to be produced by the vibration 
of the chords of the glottis. This has been infered, from a 
suposed analogy between the action of the human organ, and 
that of the dog, in which the vibration has been observed, on 
exposing the glotis during the cries of the animalj and from 
the vibration of the chords, by blowing thru the human larynx, 
when removed from the body. The conclusion is therefore prob- 
able, but until it is seen in the living function of the part, or 
until there is suficient aproximation to this proof by other 
means, it cannot be admited as a portion of exact physiological 
science. 

With regard to the mechanical cause of the Variations of Pitch 
in the natural voice, diferent notions, and they are only notions, 
have been proposed by their respective advocates. They were 
transiently enumerated above.* 

* Shortly after the first publication of this Work, in January, eighten 
hundred and twenty-seven j Mr. Robert Willis, of Caius College, Cam- 
bridge, folowing up the experiments of Kratzenstein and Kempelen, ob- 
tained by means of tubular and other ingenius contrivances, many inter- 
esting results, aproaching to the satisfactory conclusion, that vocal sound is 
produced, on the principle of the Reed, by the vibration of the ligamentous 
chords of the glottis. The artificial contrivances further showed by analogy, 
that Pitch may be in 'part produced by certain variations of these chords, 
a9 they form the aperture of the glottis ; still leaving it undetermined, by 
what other influence this pitch may be partly made .or modified, in the 
proper vocal organ. By another contrivance, he was enabled to produce 
several of the vowel sounds. 

The purpose of this Volume does not require a special notice of the inter- 
esting details of Mr. Willis' inquiry. They do not however, in point of pre- 
cise and permanent knowledge, extend the subject much beyond what we 
have stated in the text, to be the opinions of other writers ; and it is there 
said in caution^ we must not supose, the mechanism of the voice necesarily 
resembles that of certain instruments of music : for to be known perfectly, 
it must be known in itself. 

It is but a partial view, to show that vowel sounds may be made by certain 
kinds of tubes, in conection with a reed, and a bowl with a sliding cover. 
Consonants as well as vowels are only diferent kinds of sound, that may be 
clased, acording to their causes, as Human, Sub-Animal, and Mechanical. 



OF THE VOICE. 137 

On this subject, about which we know so little, but on which 
theorists are ready to fix on anythingj it is well to begin the in- 
vestigation of some curent opinions, with the process of exclusion ; 
by showing what does not produce pitch, in the visible parts of the 
vocal aparatus. 

The Pitch of the natural voice does not apear to be directly 
produced by the mouth and fauces, for it will be seen on examina- 
tion, that the rise and fall on the scale, may be severaly efected 
by all the tonic elements ; and that during the exclusive intona- 
tion of each, the positions of the tongue and fauces remain un- 
alteredj if we except some slight unsteadines of the tongue and 
soft palate, which can have no relation to the definite divisions of 
pitch. 

The sound of a-we is made, while the tongue is about on a level 
with the lower teeth ; the mouth being open, for observation, and 
all the parts of this vocal cavity having the same position, as in an 
act of silent respiration. In performing the run of pitch on this 
element, we must however, have regard to a change of the mech- 
anism of its radical, to that of e-rr, in the articulation of its vanish, 
which however, has no effect in this case, as it exists equally in the 
downward pitch. The sound of e-ve is made by aproximating 
the tongue to the roof of the mouth, leaving between them a 
narow passage for the air. In one of these instances, the avenue 
of the mouth and fauces is free ; in the other, the tongue almost: 

The human are few, the sub-animal, and mechanical, inumerable. Our per- 
ception of the human vowels with their alphabetic characters, and with thots 
and pasions, when united with consonants into words, seems to represent 
them as altogether diferent from sub-animal and mechanical sounds. There- 
is no vowel in the voice of man, that is not to be heard from some speechles 
brute, or bird, or insect, or in the inumerable sounds, made by the reciprocal 
action between air, and the varied forms and conditions of solids and fluids. 
The fauces and larynx ofer only the case of a peculiar and moistened struc- 
ture, forming those sounds, which in the egotism of our education, hardly 
our constitution, we have so far identified with humanity, as to prevent our 
imediate notice of similar sub-animal and mechanical sounds. 

The comon words of the world veil the true relationship of things, tilL 
philosophy draws-aside the curtain ; and nine-tenths of mankind, who may 
think themselves very observant, never perceve in the j,et of a fountain, the- 
click of a time-piece, the grating of a saw, and the rapid friction of a cable,, 
some of those prerogative elements, which set them as they supose r so far- 
above the brute. 
10 



138 THE MECHANISM 

closes the back of the mouth, and must be nearly in contact with 
the veil of the palate, and the arch of the fauces. Yet in each 
case the respective positions remain unaltered, under all the varia- 
tions of pitch ; and in both, the pitch is made with equal facility 
and exactnes. 

Among the subtonics, the pitch of ng is made when the current 
of air thru the mouth is completely obstructed, by contact of the 
base of the tongue with the soft palate. Again, th-en. may be 
intonated on all the degrees of the scale, altho it is produced by 
the stream of expiration over the tip of the tongue, in contact with 
the uper fore-teeth. 

It is unecesary to refer to the visible positions of the mouth and 
fauces in the production of other elements. The identity of pitch, 
under all their- various mechanisms, must lead to the conclusion, 
that the Pitch of the natural voice is not produced by the action 
of these parts. 

As the pitch of the element ng, is made by the stream of air 
passing directly from the glottis to the nose, without entering into 
the fauces and the cavity of the mouth, we may inquire^ whether 
the varieties of pitch, if produced above the glotis, are made in 
the avenue of the nose. But pitch may be made when the air does 
not pass by the nose. Pitch too is a variable function ; the parts 
within the nose are incapable of motion. 

The Falsete is a peculiar voice, in the higher degrees of pitch, 
begining where the natural voice breaks, or outruns its compas. 
The piercing cry, the scream, and the yell are various forms of the 
falsete. It must not however be suposedj the compass of the 
falsete lies restrictively, between its highest practicable note, and 
the point where the natural voice ends ; for the same kind of falsete- 
sound may by efort, be formed even below the usual point of 
separation of the two voices, or the place of what is called the 
' false note/ 

All the elements except the atonies, which are only aspirations, 
may be made in falsete. It has been already remarked, that the 
unpleasant efect both of sound and of efort, in the change from 
natural to falsete intonation, is obviated when the transition is 
juade by the concrete, and by the tremulous scales. 

The striking diference between the natural and the falsete voices, 



OF THE VOICE. 139 

has given rise to the belief of a diference in the respective mech- 
anisms, not only of their kind of sound, but likewise of their 
pitch. 

It has been suposed, the falsete is produced at the ' uper orifice 
of the larynx, formed by the sumits of the arytenoid cartilages 
and the epiglotis :.'* and the dificulty of joining it to the natural 
voice, which is thot to be made by the inferior ligaments of the 
glotis, is ascribed to the change of mechanism in the transition. 
On this I have only to add, that the falsete or a similar voice, but 
without its acutenes, may be brought downward in pitch, below 
the highest point of the natural voice ; at least I am able so to 
reduce itj producing what seems to be a unison, or an octave con- 
cord of the natural and the falsette : and since the natural voice 
may by cultivation be carried above the point it instinctively 
reaches, it leads to the inquiry, whether these voices may have a 
different agency of mechanism; regarding these aditions to the 
range of pitch, and the efort in acquiring a comand over themj as 
acording rather with the suposition of a diference in the mechani- 
cal cause of the two voices, than with that of an extension of the 
powers of the same organization, f 

* See a summary of the discoveries and opinions of M. Dodart, in Bees' 
Cyclopedia, under the article, Voice. 

f The character of this reduced falsete, if I may so call it, consisting of an 
aparent combination of its peculiar sound with the natural voices and pro- 
ducing a kind of resonant vocality, may, in a maner, be ilustrated on the 
flageolet, by singing or rather by what is called ' huming,' while blowing it. 
A similar sound is made by joining a vocal murmur with the shril aspiration 
of whistling. Both these cases however, have more of a buzing vibration, 
than is heard in the reduced or hoarse falsete. 

There is ocasionaly heard in women, an atractive and conciliating swetnes 
of voices with the natural Pitch of the sex tempered by fulnes into dignity ; 
and that seems to be a resonant union of the Soprano, and the Contralto, 
delicately similar to the ruder resonance of the reduced Falsete ; a voice, 
when trained to the truth and grace of elocution^ delightful in social life, in 
the Beading-Circle, and in the easier feminine eforts of the Stage: but want- 
ing the Matron-power of intonation for that gravity of pasionles thot, and 
vigor of thotful pasion which exalts the style of Intelectual Tragedy. I leave 
every one, to describe for himself, the efect of this voice, when it is the instru- 
ment of a mind with discretion, good temper, refined familiarity, and with 
knowledge enough for the important discovery, that it was made, not to be 
self-willed, but to think for itself. 



140 THE MECHANISM 

We are ignorant of the mechanical cause of the falsete : the 
cause of its pitch is equaly unknown. But fiction is ever ready 
to suply the wants of ignorance ; and the peculiarity of the falsete, 
leading physiologists to infer a diference between its mechanism 
and that of the natural voice, they have suposed the pitch of the 
former is made above the larynx, by the back parts of the mouth. 
It is unecesary to give the particulars of this fiction, as there seems 
to be no other foundation for it, than that of a sort of antithesis 
in causation ; for the natural voice, from which the falsete difers 
so much, is suposed to be made within the larynx. Whatever may 
have been the origin of the notion, we have had from somebody, 
a full theoretic explanation, when there is scarcely fact enough to 
warant a plausible conjecture. 

In our ignorance of the cause of the variations of pitch in falsete, 
we may perhaps lessen the oportunities for being led into fiction, 
in showing what it is not. 

If the cavity of the mouth be observed during the exercise of 
the falsete on the element a-we, very little alteration will be per- 
ceved in the positions of the surounding parts ; except some slight 
contractile movement in the uvula as the pitch rises, and when 
this is strained to its highest degree, an almost total disapearance 
of the uvula within the veil of the palate. That the contraction 
of the uvula, in the higher notes of falsete, is not the sole cause 
of its pitchj and that it is not produced by parts of the vocal 
pasage situated above the glotis, seems conclusive from the folowing 
considerations. 

The elements n and mj both being made by the pasage of air 
from the glottis, soley thru the nosej can be precisely intonated 
in the falsete scale. In this case the curent of expiration does not 
pass-by the soft palate, uvula, sides of the fauces and base of the 
tongue ; parts of the mouth suposed to be the cause of pitch in 
this voice. 

All the tonic and subtonic elements can be made in the falsete. 
It is not in accordance with the laws of sound, that the identical 
falsete, and its pitch, should be made under a mechanism so varied, 
that the formative cause of some of the elements, as of a-we and 
a-n, give a clear pasage to expiration by the mouth, and that of 
others, as e-ve, I, and r, nearly obstruct it. 



OF THE VOICE. 141 

As the falsete may be made by inspiration thru the nose with a 
closed mouth, the air cannot come into contact with the parts of 
the mouth which have been asigned as the mechanism of the 
falsette. If we inhale by a tube, with one end reaching beyond 
the soft palate, the pitch of the falsete may be formed by inspira- 
tion; tho the curent of air in this case does not impres the soft 
parts at the back of the mouth, but pases from the tube directly 
into the glotis. And the same is true of expiration, where the 
curent passes directly from the glotis into the tube. 

I have at this time a case under profesional treatment, in which 
the tonsils are so enlarged by disease, that their near aproach to 
each other, alows only space for the uvula to hang between them ; 
obstructing the pasage of air thru the mouth, except by an efort ; 
and presenting a structure altogether diferent from the comon 
condition, asigned as the mechanical cause of the falsete. And 
yet this individual is able to make the falsete intonation. 

I had lately an oportunity of seing an instance of malforma- 
tion, where the whole soft palate is wanting. The pasage to the 
throat being a single arch, curving along the edge of the palate 
bone, instead of the low double arch, formed by the soft palate 
and depending uvula in the perfect fauces. Adhering to each 
side of the arch, just above the tonsil, there is a small tuber or 
fleshy dropj semingly formed by the curtain of the soft palate, 
being divided vertically thru the uvula to the palate bone ; and 
each portion of the curtain being then drawn within the soft parts 
on its respective side, except the drops, or lower parts of the senii- 
uvulas, which project in the maner and place above described. This 
is the state, at rest. In straining the highest notes of the falsete, 
the two projecting uvular-drops, by some peculiar muscularity, 
make an efort to aproach each other horizontaly acros the mouth, 
and thereby convert the semicircular arch into the form of a horse- 
shoej by drawing inwards, each about half an inch, along the 
diameter of the arch. Here then, the principal part of the apa- 
ratus, said to produce the falsete, is wanting ; yet this voice and 
its degres of pitch are acurately executed by the individual, not- 
withstanding her deformity. 

The back parts of the mouth are in their function, too variable 
under the acidental influence of muscular efort, to be the mechan- 



142 THE MECHANISM 

ical cause of the fixed and acurate degrees of the scale. For when 
any one point of pitch is maintained, the soft palate and its apend- 
age the uvula, may be seen to undergo involuntary movements, 
that do not apear to have any efect on the voice. I am able to 
make twenty-four distinct notes with acurate intonation ; fiften are 
natural and nine falsette. In runing this compas on the dipthong 
a-we, in which the articulative mechanism of an open mouth and 
embeded tongue, alows the isthmus or opening of the fauces to be 
distinctly seen j I perceve no alteration of position in executing the 
natural notes, except that of the articulative change, when the 
voice rises into e-rr, the obscure vanish of this dipthong. There 
is an unsteadines in the positions, but none of that definite grada- 
tion in organic changes, implied in the ascription of the variations 
of pitch to the motions of the back part of the mouth. In into- 
nating the falsete discretely, on the dipthong a-we, I perceve some 
change in the palate, but little or none in the tongue, if the vanish 
e-rr is avoided. The change in the palate consists of a convulsive 
action of the uvula, which starts-up, as the radical of a-we opens 
on each degree of the scale, and the next moment descends. This 
convulsive action is not aparent when the voice ascends by the 
concrete ; tho under the use of both scales, the uvula at the highest 
rise of the falsete is contracted almost to disapearance. That this 
extreme contraction is not productive of pitch in the falsete, I have 
endeavored to show ; but am not able to say, whether it arises from 
some collection in muscular action, or from some change of the 
articulative mechanism in its higher notes. 

I have ofered these few remarks, in acknowledging my igno- 
rance of the mechanical cause of the peculiar sound and the pitch 
of the falsete. 

The Whispering voice is well known. It is an aspiration^ and 
makes the short impulse, and the final Vocule, of the atonic 
elements. These then are necessarily a whisper. All the other 
elements, properly vocal, may be likewise made by aspiration. 
The whisper of b, d, and g, considered by Holder and his folowers 
as identical with the atonies p, t, and k, is to my ear at least, faintly 
distinguishable from them, by having a less easy outset, and by a 
slight initial efort of articulation. 

We are not acquainted with the mechanical cause of whisper. 



OF THE VOICE. 143 

as distinguished from that of voeality in the natural voice. It has 
been ascribed to the operation of the curent of air on the sides of 
the glottis, when its chords are at rest ; whereas voeality is said 
to proced from the agitation of the air by the vibration of those 
chords. This however is merely an inference from analogy, and 
has a claim to posibilityj no more. 

The whispering voice effects its variation of pitchj in a very 
diferent maner from that of the natural and the falsete. The 
intonation of these voices, as shown above, is not conected with 
the visible movements of the mouth, tongue, and fauces, which 
produce articulation. If there has been no eror in my observa- 
tion, the transit by the scale of whisper is somehow made within 
the vocal organs, by taking diferent elements for the sucesive steps 
of the discrete movement ; each whispered element being itself 
incapable of variation in pitch, while its true articulation remains 
unchanged. 

For the explanation of this subject, let us designate three forms 
of the whispering voice. The Articulated, consisting in the pronun- 
ciation of the alphabetic elements ; the Whistled, having the well- 
known shrilnes of this function ; and the Suflated, a husky breath, 
partaking of the character of the two former, without having the 
shrilnes of one, or the articulation of the other. When in Ar- 
ticulated Whisper, the tonics are distinctly pronounced, without 
runing into Suflation, the changes of pitch are made upon changes 
of the elements. In the order of articulated intonation, oo-ze 
is the lowest in the scale, and e-ve the highest : the sucesion by 
the first, third, and fifth, thru two octaves, being upon the seven 
folowing elements. 

First Octave. Second Octave. 



1 3 5 81 3 5 8 



oo-ze d-we a-rt e-rr e-11 a-le 



6-ve 



This scale of articulated whisper is of so peculiar a character 
that I do not presume to speak without doubt upon it; for even a 
seming anomaly in intonation, leads me, under a strong belief in 
the uniformity of the laws of nature, to question my own obser- 
vation ; and to call for the asistance of others. If however, this 



144 THE MECHANISM 

is the real construction of the scale, for so it apears to mej each 
intermediate note must consist of sounds that resemble those con- 
tiguous to it. Thus when we require a second note in the pro- 
gresion between oo-ze and d-we, the first, and third in the scale, it 
must partake of the articulation of both these elements. And of 
the two sounds for the sixth and the seventh, between a-rt and 
e-rr, one will partake more of the articulation of a-rt and the 
other of e-rr. But as these intermediate sounds are not used as 
whispered elements in our language, they cannot be made with- 
out great dificulty, and only after long and careful efort. Hence 
the intonation of articulated whisper is rarely executed with pre- 
cision, except at the points numbered in the preceding series; for 
we have only the whispered elements which are employed at those 
points. 

In the above exemplification, I have given only seven tonics ; 
but we formerly enumerated twelve, and if a-oy is admitted as a 
dipthong, there are six more to which I have not alotted separate 
places, in the whispered scale. Of these, o-ld takes its place with 
oo-ze ; i-sle, and ou-r with a-we ; i-f with e-ve ; and a-n comes 
next before e-rr. This apears to me to be the position of these 
six tonics. Yet I cannot ofer the observations, as altogether satis- 
factory to my ear, and therefore leave the subject for others.* 

* It is necesary to remark, that a delicate ear, and a practical knowledge of 
the scale are required for measuring these degrees of whispered articulation. 
The extent of the series of elements given in the text, including two octaves, 
the series must begin on the gravest degree of pitch. I cannot on this subject 
draw from the experience of others ; but in executing the rising order of these 
elements, I take oo-ze at the very lowest point at which the articulation, fred 
from whistle and suflation, can be madej to bring the highest place of e-ve, 
within the reach of intonation ; my voice being just able to compass these 
two octaves in articulated whisper. As a matter for further investigation, it 
may not be irrelevant to remark, the coincidence in my own case, of the 
number of degrees in the scale of whispered articulation with that of the 
natural voice ; both being about fiften. 

Let me here add a thot, on the ground that the intonation of articulated 
whisper is as I have observed it. The mechanism of the whispered, and of 
the vocal elements being the same ; and the places of the several whispered 
elements being fixed points of the scale ; a record of the order of these into- 
nated articulations might perhaps lead to a recovery, if lost, of the sounds of 
the vowel-symbols of the natural voice. 

For example, supose the fixed place and order of the whispered elements, 



OF THE VOICE. 145 

The pitch of the suflated whisper apears to be made in the same 
maner as that of the articulated. For in ascending the scale, this 
suflation has a husky resemblance to the whispered elements ; oo-ze 
being the lowest, and e-ve the highest. The suflated whisper is 
employed to form the tune of the Jews-harp. As the peculiar 
vibration of air which constitutes the pitch of the suflated element, 
pases over the tongue of the instrument, this tongue, it would 
seem, vibrates in unison with it. It is owing to the dificulty of 
articulating the intermediate artificial elements so to call them, and 
of fixing their exact place, and consequently of intonating the 
full discrete scale of suflation, that even a good musical ear, is 
rarely able on first trials, to hit acurately, more than the third, 
fifth, and octave, on the scale of this simple instrument. 

The pitch of whistling is also produced by the same mechanism : 
for in this case as well as in that of suflation and of articulation, 
a thin rod passed into the corner of the mouth by depressing the 

together with the parts of the vocal organs and their actions, to be described. 
By asuming the known position and action of those parts in producing an 
element, and expiring at the same time, the designed articulation would be 
efected. Thus any one whispered element being found, its place on the scale 
is also found ; and the fixed place of this element being known, the rest, by 
their order of upward and downward discrete intonation, must necesarily be 
found ; and the pronunciation of the seven whispered tonics may be ascer- 
tained. But the whispered and the vocal tonics have respectively the same 
mechanism. It would therefore be required, only to direct the stream of 
vocality over this mechanism, to. convert the whisper into vocalityj in order 
to have the recovered knowledge of the tonics, as they were used in a lan- 
guage, of which the phonetic means of recognition had been lost. 

The interesting discoveries by Young, and his coadjutors, of the vocal ele- 
ments of the old Egyptians, hiden so long under their peculiar symbolsj were 
the hapy result of the record of a few proper names : and the subsequent de- 
velopments by the sagacious and indefatigable Champollion, could not have 
been efected without the aid of the verbal sounds of the old Egyptian language, 
still represented in Coptic writing. 

We here ofer a passing hint, for the recovery of lost vowel sounds in any 
language, founded on the unalterable character, and the instinctive uses of 
the human voice : and if the above account of the pitch of whisper, is given 
upon corect observation j it shows a curious anomaly on the subject of the 
mechanism of the vocal scale ; and intimates, that we are not yet full masters 
of the physiology of speech. 

With regard to the consonants, we must keep in mind^ their obvious 
and describable mechanism in the natural voice, would if recorded, alow a 
recovery of their phonetic character. 



146 THE MECHANISM 

tongue, destroys the power both of articulation, and of ascending 
the scale. And further, there is in the lowest and the highest note 
of whistling, as well as in those of suflation, a kind of sound 
however obscure, resembling respectively the articulated oo-ze and 
e-ve. Closing the mouth destroys the articulation of whisper and 
of the natural voice, together with the pitch of the three forms of 
whisper ; with the mouth closed, the whole scale may be acurately 
humed in the natural voice. The shrilnes of whistling seems to 
be made by the aperture between the lips. On this subject we 
might inquire if the intonation of the scale of wind instruments 
is not in some cases produced altogether by the pitch of suflated 
whisper ; in others, by its combination with the efect of a varied 
position of the lipsj of a varied force of breathj and of the varied 
ventages or stops. It is well known, that the first seven notes of 
the key of D on the flute, and their corresponding octaves are 
severaly note and octave, made by the same stop. The diference 
of pitch between a note and its octave in this case is produced, not 
perhaps, by the position of the lips, nor by the force of breath, 
but by a diference in pitch of the suflated whisper. It is perhaps, 
the same with the notes of the flageolet and clarionet.* 

The Subtonic elements when whispered, are individualy incapable 
of the variations of pitch. Have they like the whispered tonics, 
relatively to each oihw, diferent places in the scale ? 

In order to perceve clearly the peculiar character of pitch 
above described, we must, in executing the articulated whisper, be 
careful to make the elements as it were, at the back of the mouth ; 
thereby to avoid faling into the suflation, and the whistle, that 
have their formative causes nearer the lips. 

The Atonies have singly, no variation of pitch ; and if they 
have relations to each other on the scale, they are of no impor- 
tance in speech. 

The voice now to be described, is not perhaps in its mechanism, 
diferent from the natural; but is rather to be regarded as an 
eminent degree of fulnes, clearnes, and smoothnes in its kind of 
vocality, and this may be either native or acquired. 

* It might be inquired, whether the facility in executing the third, fifth, 
and octave, on all mouthed instruments, as well as in the voice, is not con- 
ected with the use of the peculiar scale of articulated whisper. 



OF THE VOICE. 147 

The limited analysis, and vague history of speech by the an- 
cients, and the further confusion of the subject by commentators 
upon them, leave us in doubt whether the Latin phrase, ' os ro- 
tundum j ' used more to our purpose in its ablative, i ore rotundo,' 
by Horace, in complimenting Grecian eloquencej refered to the 
construction of periods, the predominance or position of vowels, 
or to some peculiar vocality. Whatever may have been the 
original signification of the phrase, the English term i roundnes 
of tone/ specifying as w T e may supose, a smooth fulnes, seems to 
have been derived from it. 

He who, by observing merely the sound of the voice, has learned, 
for he must learn to admire its grave and impressive fulnesj may 
remember how slowly he came to the perception of its deliberate 
dignity. Nor will he deny, that its peculiar character would 
have earlier atracted his atention, had it been distinguished by 
a proper oratorical name. On the basis of the Latin phrase, I 
have constructed the term Orotundj to designate that asemblage 
of atributes which constitutes the highest character of the speak- 
ing voice. 

By the Orotund, or adjectively the Orotund voice, I mean a 
natural, or improved manner of utering the elements with a fulnes, 
cleames, strength, smoothnes, and if I may make the word, a sub- 
sonorous vocality; rarely heard in ordinary speech, and never 
found in its highest excelence, except after long and careful culti- 
vation. 

By Fulnes of voice, I mean a grave and holow volume, re- 
sembling the hoarsenes of a comon Cold. 

By Clearnes, a freedom from aspiration, nasality, and vocal 
murmur.* 

By Strength, a satisfactory loudnes or audibility. 

By Smoothness, a freedom from all reedy or guttural harsh- 
ness. 

By a Sub-sonorous vocality, its mufled resemblance to the 
resonance of certain musical instruments. 

I know how difficult it is to make such descriptions definite, 

* By this last term, I mean an obscuring acompaniment of sound, as if the 
whole of the voice had not been made-up into articulation. It is not an 
unfrequent cause of indistinctnes in speakers. 



148 THE MECHANISM 

without audible ilustration. Perhaps the best means for instruc- 
tion is to excite atention by terms ; to convey the subject of these 
terms as nearly as possible, in figurative language ; and to leave 
the recognition of the thing described, to the subsequent observa- 
tion of the learner. The same audible relationships that furnished 
the metaphor, may in due time lead others to acknowledge the 
aptnes of the ilustration.* 

The mechanical structure and action that produce the orotund 
are to me, after much inquiry, unknown. During its uterance, 
we may perceve a motion and contraction of the back parts of the 
mouth, diferent from the action of those parts under the coloquial 
voice. But these indications of a cause are so slight and so in- 
definite, that they do not at present apear to justify more than this 
general notice. In our ignorance of the mechanism of speech we 
are not even able to decide, whether the orotund is only an im- 
proved quality of the natural voice, or the efect of its own peculiar 
cause. It was said abovej the falsete, or something hoarsely like 
it, is practicable within the range of the natural voice, below the 
place of the ' false note/ Is the cause of the orotund the same as 
that of the reduced, or as it may be called, the Basso-falsete ? for 
this has somewhat of the full, holow, and sub-sonorous efect, 
ascribed to the acquired orotund. 

Connected with the subject of that improved vocality of the 
singing-voice, called by vocalists, ' Pure Tone/ several terms are 
used to describe the mechanical causes of its diferent characters. 

* Certain reverberations resemble two constituents of the orotund voice. 
Thus vaulted ceilings and coved receses often give a sub-sonorous echo ; and 
speaking with the mouth within an empty vessel produces a holow fulnes. 
One of the best instances I ever heard, of a modification of the human voice 
into a full, hollow, and sub-sonorous, character, was from a boy who had 
sportfuly got into a large coper alembic. 

It may be worth thinking upon, whether the brazen and the earthen vases, 
which were somehow formed, and then somehow set, within the masonry of 
the seats of Greek theaters, but of which we know so littlej were not designed, 
with perhaps the co-operation of the Mask, to modify the voice, to the sub- 
sonorous and hollow fulnes of the orotund ; as well as to increase its force, and 
to return a concord to its pitch. The speaking-trumpet afords tho not agre- 
ably, a resemblance to what we would here describe : and could the bugle, or 
the organ diapason be made to articulate, it would give the highest measure 
of that fulnes, and sub-sonorous efect, which in distant similarity constitute 
the character of the orotund voice. 



OF THE VOICE. 149 

Among these, the causations implied by the phrases i voce di testa/ 
and ' voce di petto/ or the voice from the head, and from the chest, 
must be considered as not yet manifest in physiology ; and the 
notions conveyed by them must be hung up beside those meta- 
phorical pictures, which with their characteristic dimnes or misrep- 
resentation, have been in all ages, substituted for the unatainable 
delineations of the real processes of nature. 

There is a harsh kind of voice called Guturalj produced by a 
vibratory curent of air, between the sides of the pharynx and the 
base of the tongue, when aparently brought into contact above the 
glotis. If then the term ' voice from the throat' which has been 
one of the unmeaning or indefinite designations of vocal science, 
were aplied to this gutural sound, it would definitely assign a 
locality to the mechanism. 

In acknowledging my ignorance of the mechanism of the oro- 
tund, it must be addedj that its function wherever performed, 
may yet be improved by studious exercise. And as the best 
and only pure instances of this voice are the result of cultiva- 
tion, I here propose some elementary means by which it may be 
acquired. 

It would seem to be suficient for a teacher of elocution to ex- 
emplify the orotundj that his pupil might imitate it. Vocalists 
in their lesons on Pure Tone do little more. But singing has long 
been an Art; and its many votaries have rendered the public 
familiar with its leading terms and principles, and acustomed the 
ear to the peculiarities of its practice. Whereas elocution apears 
to be with the vast majority, no more than a sub-animal instinct ; 
by which, some only low, bleat, bark, mew, chatter, whinny and 
bray a little beter than others. In describing therefore, without 
the oportunity of ilustrating, it becomes necesary to adress the 
pupil, as if he had no principles to help his intelect, nor exem- 
plified sounds to satisfy his ear. In this case, it is desirable to let 
him teach himself, by refering to functions of the voice, familiar 
to him both by daily exercise, and name. When the scholastic 
world shall comprehend our history of the speaking voice, and 
aply it to practice^ the Educated Class, in their comunity of knowl- 
edge, will learn the good things of elocution from one another ; 
children will catch the proprieties of speech from well-taught 



150 THE MECHANISM 

parents ; and many a topic of this Work, which I have labored 
perhaps in vain, to make at this time perspicuous, may hereafter, 
from the unsought enlightening of surounding knowledge, seem 
to be perspicuous in itself. 

With studious atention, we perceve two diferent forms of res- 
piration ; one being a continued stream of air during the whole 
time of expiration ; the other consisting in the isue of breath by 
short iterated jets. The first is that of ordinary breathing, pant- 
ing, sighing, groaning, and snezing. The second is employed in 
laughter, crying, and speech.* 

By a comand over the muscles of respiration, the speaking- 
breath is frugaly dealt out to sucesive sylables, in limited portions 
apropriate to the time and force of each : thereby guarding against 
the necesity of frequent inspirations : while these momentary pauses 
betwen sylables as well as words, alow an opening of the radical 
for articulation, and instant oportunities for recovering the breath. 

The act of coughing is either a series of short abrupt eforts, in 
expiration ; or of one continued impulse which yields-up the whole 
of the breath. This last forms one of the means for acquiring 
the Orotund. The single impulse of coughing is an abrupt uter- 
ance of one of the short tonic vocalities, folowed by a continua- 
tion of the atonic breathing h, till the expiration is exhausted. 
Let this compound function, consisting of the exploded tonic 
vocality and the aspiration, be changed to an entire vocality, by 
omiting the sharp abruptnes of the cough, and continuing the 
tonic in place of the aspiration. The sound produced, will with 
proper cultivation, lead to that full and sub-sonorous character, 
here denominated the orotund. 

This contrived efort of coughing when freed from abruptnes, is 
like the voice of Gaping ; for this has a holow and sub-sonorous 
vocality, very diferent from the coloquial uterance of tonic sounds. 
It may be exemplified by giving the tonic d-we, with the mouth 

* Laughter and Crying will be particularly noticed hereafter. 

Sighing and Groaning are expirations of similar time ; one being an atonic 
or whispered element, the other a tonic vocality. 

Snezing is a rapid expiration abruptly begun ; and generaly producing one 
of the elements. 

I say nothing here of the various forms of inspiration conected with these 
acts. 



OF THE VOICE. 151 

widely extended ; and by speaking, as far as it is possible, in a 
gaping articulation. 

AYhen the pupil can efect this entire vocality of the artificial 
cof, if it may be distinguished from the usual cof j which, with 
its quick explosion, is in part vocality and part aspiration^ let 
him practice it suficiently, yet avoiding the initial abruptnes, and 
he will not only acquire facility in executing it, but its clearnes 
and smoothnes will be thereby improved. Let the voice be herein 
exercised by rising and faling thru the concrete scale, on each of 
the tonic elements^ drawing out the vocality to the utmost extent 
of expiration. Then let trials be made on the sylabic combinations. * 

Being able to execute the tonic elements and single sylables in 
the orotund, the pupil is not therefore fully prepared to speak con- 
tinuously in it : and on atempting to uter a sentence in this voice, 
his coloquial maner returns. The cause of this will be obvious, 
by recolecting the distinction between the two kinds of expiration. 
For if even able to execute the orotund on single sylables, in the 
continuous stream of vocality, he has yet to learn the use of that 
voice, with those internpted jets of expiration, which are esential 
to easy and agreable speech. Continued practice however, with a 
gradual increase in the number of sylables, will bring his in- 
terupted expiration of the orotund, under available comand. 

Altho the pupil may then be able to uter any number of suces- 
ive sylables, by interupted jets of this voice, yet, from having 
therein, no ability to vary the intervals^ the maner of their suces- 
ion will be monotonous : he will have no power of expresive into- 
nation, and will be unable to make the proper close at the end of 
a sentence. Repeated practice will give corectness and variety on 
these points, and the management of the orotund, for the impresive 
and elegant purposes of spech will in time, be no more dificult 
than that of the coloquial voice. 

The method of gradualy acquiring the orotund is similar to our 
instinctive progres thru the sucesive periods of speech. The cries 
of infants are made on the continued stream of vocality. It is a 

* This proces of forcing out the breath to the seming exhaustion of the 
lungs, is apt to produce gidiness of the head. Care should therefore be taken, 
to avoid continuing the exercise of the voice too long in this maner; and to 
desist for the time, when that afection comes on. 



152 THE MECHANISM 

long time before they employ the interupted expiration. The first 
uterance of the child is by an aportionment of a single sylable to 
a breath. By a preparatory exercise in the interupted jets of laugh- 
ter and crying, the comand over expiration, and the habit of per- 
fect speech is acquired. The same kind of monosylabic breath, 
employed in infant articulation, and in acquiring the orotund, 
ocurs in the debility of age, in pulmonary opression, and in cases 
of prostration from disease ; for here the uterance frequently con- 
sists of but one, or at most two sylables to an act of expiration. 
The condition is similar in panting from violent exercise; the 
voluntary command over the interupted jets of expiration being 
therein lost. 

The orotund is posessed in various degrees of excelence by emi- 
nent Actors ; yet being a muscular function, not necesarily con- 
ected either with mind or ear, we often perceve it, in those of 
a humble class. The state of mere animal instinct in which 
Actors have chosen to keep themselves, with regard to the uses of 
the voice, must convince usj they can have no systematic pur- 
pose, nor any sucesful means for improving it. There is, how- 
ever, one circumstance in theatrical speech, that may undesign- 
edly produce in time, the full volume of the sub-sonorous orotund. 
I mean the practice of vociferating, semingly required by the ex- 
tent of the House, by the deaf taste of the audience, and by the 
poetical rant and bombast of what are called f stock acting trage- 
dies/ In adition, therefore, to the previously described means for 
acquiring the orotund, I shall, in a few words, point out another 
method derived from the vehement eforts of Histrionic speech. ! 

Let the Reader make an expiration on the interjection hah, in 
the voice of whisper, with a widely extended mouth, and with a 
duration suficient to press all the air from the lungs. Then let 
the whisper in this proces be changed to vocality. This vocality, 
like that of gaping, will have the hoarse fulness and sub-sonorous 
volume of the orotund. The forcible exertion of this kind of 
voice constitutes Vociferation ; for vociferation is the utmost efort 
of the natural voice, as the shriek or yell is of the falsete. Actors 
who afect the first rank in their art, are often by energy of pasion 
urged to a degree of force, which produces the mixture of vocality 
and aspiration, in the interjection hah; and it will be shown in a 



OF THE VOICE. 153 

future section, that the junction of a certain degree of aspiration 
with the tonic elements, is one of the means of earnest and forcible 
expresion. The frequent ocurence of exagerated pasion and lan- 
guage in the drama, joined to the efort required by the dimensions 
of a Theater, induces the habit of interjective expiration, which 
exerted with a wide extension of the mouth, leads the speaker 
to the atainment of the orotund, if his voice is capable of it. 

It must not be suposed that the full, holow, and sub-sonorous 
orotund is always of the same purity. It varies in its degrees of 
force and fulnes ; and is sometimes slightly infected with aspira- 
tion, nasality, vocal murmur, or gutural harshnes. 
Urr If it should be asked j what advantage is gained by the care 
and labor here enjoined, for acquiring this improved condition of 
the speaking voice, it may be answered^ 

First. The mere sound is more tunable than that of the common 
voice. Compared with the full and sub-sonorous character of a 
well-timed orotund, some voices have as little even of a hint of 
music in them, as the noise of a hamer on a block. This vocality, 
so impresive with its dignity of volume, often catches the ear 
and aprobation of those who are quite insensible to the agency of 
pause, quantity, and intonation. I have known the single influence 
of an orotund voice give extensive fame to an actor, who in more 
esential points of good reading, was even below mediocrity. It 
is this vocality which dignifies the other excelencies of speech. 
In the voice of women it is most obvious and delightful. I refer 
to their speech only, not to the lower notes of their contralto in 
song. 

Second. The orotund is fuler in volume, and purer in vocality 
than the comon voice ; and as the later gives a delicate atenua- 
tion to the vanishing movement, the former with no less apropriate 
efect, displays the stronger body of the radical. 

Third. Its pure and impresive vocality gives distinctnes to pro- 
nunciation ; and when completely formed is free from the dulnes 
created by nasality or aspiration ; the characteristic ofensiveness 
of which is shown by their union in Snoring. 

Fourth. It exerts a greater degree of articulative and expresive 
power than the comon voice. In this respect it has the character 
of things perfect in their kind. The ear seems filled with its 
11 



154 THE MECHANISM 

volume, and asks for no more. There is too, on the part of the 
speaker himself, that satisfaction which acompanies the full ener- 
gizing of a function ; for here Nature herself seems to acknowl- 
edgej the voice has fulfiled its duty. Those who by cultivation 
of the singing-voice, have brought its tone to the utmost extent 
of fulnes and purity, will admit the importance of practice and 
perseverance, in preparing the voice for the purposes of speech. 
Compared with the power and facility of an endowed and high- 
taught Vocalist, common instinctive eforts in song seem to be not 
much removed from the imbecility of paralysis. 

Fifth, The orotund, from the discipline of cultivation, is more 
under comand than the comon voice ; and is consequently more 
eficient and precise in the production of long quantity ; in varying 
the degrees of force; in executing the tremulous scale; and in 
fulfiling all the other purposes of expresive intonation. 

Sixth. It is the only kind of voice apropriate to the master- 
style of epic and dramatic reading. By it alone, the actor con- 
sumates an outward sign of the grandeur and energy of his thot 
and pasion. Employed in what will presently be described as the 
Diatonic Melody, the impresive authority and dignified elegance 
of this voice, excede as measurably the meaner sounds of ordinary 
discourse, as the superlative pictures of the poet, and the broad 
wisdom of the sage, respectively transcend the poor originals of 
life and all their wretched policies. It is the only voice capable 
of fulfiling the solemnity of the Church- service, and the majesty 
of Shakespeare and Milton. 

Finally, as the orotund does not destroy the ability to use the 
comon voice, it will be perceved how their contrasted employment 
may add the resource of vocal light and shade, if we may so speak, 
to the means of oratorical coloring and design. 

The Mechanism of the Tremulous movement does not apear to 
be conected with the visible parts of the fauces. There is a gurg- 
ling noise somewhat resembling it, produced by a vibration of the 
uvula, when brought into contact with the base of the tongue, in the 
expiration of the elements e-ve and e-rr ; and I leave it for future 
observers to ascertain^ whether the tremulous rise and fall may not 
be refered to this or to the organic cause of the variations of pitch, 
in the natural and falsete voices. 



OF THE VOICE. 155 

I have here endeavored to set-forth what we do not know of the 
mechanism of speech. The subject of the voice is divided into 
two branches. Anatomy and Physiology. The first embraces a 
description of the vocal organs. The second, a history of the 
functions performed by that organization. The anatomical struc- 
ture is recorded to the utmost visible and microscopic minutenes. 
The history of those audible functions which it is the design of 
this "Work to developej and which, by the strictest meaning of the 
term, constitute the vocal physiology j has in a great measure been 
disregarded, under a belief that these functions are altogether 
beyond the power of analytic perception. 

In disregarding the physiological analysis of vocality, force, 
and pitch of vocal sound, writers have tried to ascertain only 
w T hat parts of the organization produce these several phenomena ; 
and seem to have almost restricted the name of physiology to 
their vain and contradictory notions about these mechanical causa- 
tions. Hence in the Elocutional physiology, if we may so call it,, 
of the organs of speech, there is little of that rooted opinion,, 
which in most cultivated sciences contends with an original in- 
quirer, in every atempt to sacrifice ignorance and eror to the cause 
of truth. Whereas the subject of mechanical causation, like all 
other maters of theory, has become doctrinal and divided ; and, 
the inquirer has here not only to strive at reaching the secrecy of 
nature, but harder still, has to encounter the obstinacy of sectaries > 
whose opinions have grown into pride, by their unyielding con- 
tentions with each other. 

When the observative Reader has finished this volume, he will 
perceve that in part of this fifth section, and ocasionaly elsewhere, 
I was sometimes ocupied with the contestable opinions of mem; 
but generaly, with an aim to extend our views of the human voice,, 
by consulting and recording the Oracular voice of Nature : a con- 
trast that may well induce a lover of truth and brevity to exclaim^ 
Happy is he, who desiring to enlarge the circle of knowledge, 
comes to a subject which the fictional finger of the school has, 
never touched. 



156 THE EXPRESION OF SPEECH. 

SECTION VI. 

Of the HJxpresion of Speech. 

In the preceding sections we have explained the terms of the 
five modes of speech, with many of their forms and varieties; 
have described these modes and forms, as they apear in the radical 
and vanish, the alphabetic elements, and in the construction of 
sylables ; and far as acurately ascertained, have shown how the 
Organs of the Voice mechanicaly produce the phenomena of these 
modes and forms. These explanations and descriptions give a 
preparatory view of the functions of speech ; and embrace all the 
generalities required by an inteligent and atentive Reader, in 
pursuing the subsequent details of this Work. 

Speech is employed to declare the States and Purposes of the 
mind. These are first known to us as Perceptions ; and Percep- 
tions may be divided into Thots, and Pasions. Acording to this 
view, the design of speech is to declare our thots and pasions. If 
we acknowledge this distinction in the states of mindj the voice 
must, by a like ordination, have distinct means or signs for de- 
claring them. It is therefore of great importance to ascertain, what 
are the diferent means in the voice, for declaring in one case, the 
plain and simple condition of thot ; and in the other, the excited 
mental condition of pasion : for these will form the leading divi- 
sions of our present subject. 

Schoolmen make a vague distinction between thots and pasions, 
and comon usage has adopted their language. This is not a place 
for controversy; nor is it necesary to inquire deliberately, whether 
the above distinction refers to the esential character of the states 
of mind, or to their degres. Some may be disposed to consider 
thot and pasion as varied degres only, of intensity of perceptions; 
since the function, noted as a plain unexcited thot in one, has in 
another, from its urgency, and without aparent specific diference, 
the active power of a pasion ; and in the same person at diferent 
times, like circumstances produce, acording to the varied suscepti- 
bility of excitement, the mental condition of either a pasion or a 



THE EXPRESION OF SPEECH. 157 

thot. Perhaps it might not be dificult to show these states have 
many points in comon ; and that no definite line of demarkation 
can be drawn between them. But however inseparably involved 
in their mingling afinityj the states of mind in thot, and in pasion, 
are in their more remote relationships, either in kind or degre 
distinguishably diferent. 

Coresponding to this diference between thot and pasion, the 
vocal means for declaring their extreme distinctions are, as we 
shall learn hereafter, no less strongly marked : yet their asimilating 
forms prevent a strict line of separation between them. In uter- 
ing, as a polite or merely thotful request, the phrasej give me that 
book, we use quite a diferent intonation and force, from that em- 
ployed on the same words, as a passionate and rude imperative. 
Gradualy add earnestnes to the request, and gradualy moderate 
the comand : and as the states of mind become identical, so will 
the voices, if properly representing those changes. Notwithstand- 
ing this manifest diference of meaning in the terms Thot and 
Pasionj we have not, in our ignorance of the analytic history of 
speech, perceved the want of a discriminative nomenclature, and 
consequently have no brief coresponding terms, for the vocal 
signs that severaly represent them. Books on elocution have 
inded vaguely employed the word Expresion, to signify the voice 
of pasion. But they furnish us with no single or apropriate term 
for the plain declaration of simple or pasionles thot ; which as we 
procede in our history, will be esentialy required. 

Until physical science shall direct a penetrating and difusive 
light upon the reciprocal influence between the mind and the voice, 
all will be desultory and confused. The term Expresion, tho 
suficient for the indefinite elocution of the Orator and the Player j 
is not restrictive ; for it is as comon to speak of the expresion of an 
unexcited thot, or meaning in language, as of the expresion of its 
pasion. This want of precise distinction between the states of thot 
and pasion, has been one cause why we have no precise terms for 
vocal signs to denote this distinction. 

Metaphysics, which has been in a great measure, the art of 
searching for the useles, and seeming to find the imposible relation- 
ships of thingsj has unfortunately been sufered, for it is a disaster, 
to spread its i insane root/ within and thruout the subject of the 



158 THE EXPRESION OF SPEECH. 

mindj and has been so blindly groping in its absurd atempt to dis- 
tinguish between Mater and Spiritj that it has not regarded the 
manifest diference between the mental states of thot and pasion, 
and consequently between the vocal signs which denote the 
diference. 

The Natural Science of speech requires the convenience and 
precision of a proper nomenclature, for the asignable distinctions 
of both the mind and the voice. New terms for these distinctions 
might be taken from other languages; yet as the plain-English 
spoken facts of this volume may to the ' calm philosopher/ who 
should ' wonder at nothing/ be so repulsively strange^ I am not 
disposed to strengthen the repulsion if avoidable, by ading the 
further strangenes, of words adopted from a clasic or a foreign 
tongue. Our divisions will therefore be marked by familiar 
English words, with prefixed or terminative additions. 

Most of the inquiries into the subject of the human mind have 
produced little else than partizan contention in the schools^ and 
delusive self-conceit, about their own faculties, among the vulgar. 
This has kept the nomenclature of the conditions and uses of the 
mind, so indefinite or eroneous, as to confound every atempt, by 
strict observation, severaly to arange under its vague and variable 
terms, the directly related subjects of the mind and the voice. 
Should I then fail, or not do my best in this purpose, the Reader, 
if not able to do his better best, may perhaps acknowledge the 
dificulty of the task. The states of mind, indefinitely caled ' idea, 
perception, thot, sentiment, emotion, sensation, feeling, and pasionj ' 
whatever their diferent characters or degrees, having never been 
reduced to order, and to clear definition^ we will until a time of 
more acurate observation, embrace the imperfect design of those 
terms, within a nomenclature of greater compas and precision. 

On a broad survey of these ' ideas, perceptions, thots, sentiments, 
and passions/ we perceve in their conditions and agencies, the 
distinctions of a Plain and Quiet State of Mind ; a state of Ex- 
citement; and a state Between these extremes. We may then 
call the first of these states, that of Thot ; the midle state, Inter- 
thot ; the third, Pasion : and for the relationships of these states to 
Language, make a coresponding division of the vocal signs, or- 
dained by Nature severaly to represent them. In the detail of this 



THE EXPRESION OF SPEECH. 159 

arangement, it may be necesary to refer to some of the topics of 
future sections, yet we shall use no term, without a present or 
previous definite explanation. 

The First state or condition of the mind is its simple perception 
of things, their actions, and other relationships^ with no reference 
to the exciting interests of human life. We apply to both this 
state of plain thot, and to the vocal sign that denotes it, the term 
Thotive. Its vocal sign consists in the simple rise and fall and 
shorter wave of the interval of the second; of an unobtrusive 
vocality; with a moderate degree of Force; and short sylabic Time 
or Quantity. 

The Second, or intermediate condition has that relation to 
human life, which excites moderately self-interesting reflections in 
the mindj and embraces dignity, pathos, awe, serious admiration, 
reverence, and other states congenial in character and degre with 
these. We call this condition of the mind, and its vocal signs, the 
Inter-thotive, but preferably the Admirative or Revereniwe. Its 
signs are variously the interval of the semitone, the second, oca- 
sionaly the third and fifth, with their waves ; an extended time ; 
a full orotund vocality ; with a moderate but dignified force. 

The Third condition has a more imediate and vivid reference 
to human life, its reflective interests, and actions, under the im- 
presive forms, degrees, and varieties of pasion. We call this state 
of mind, and the signs which denote it, the Pasionative. Its signs 
are the semitone, and wider rising and faling intervals, with their 
waves; either a short, or an extended time; a striking and varied 
vocality; abrnptnes; with high degrees, and impresive forms of 
force. 

I have in these divisions, used the terms Inter-thot, and Inter- 
thotive, briefly to denote, the intermediate condition between thot 
and pasion ; but as these words are at first startling, and are not 
altogether exact, I will generaly designate the forms of this division 
of the mental state and its vocal signs, as Admirative, or Eever- 
entive, and use the term Inter-thot, merely for brevity of phrase. 

These terms for the three divisions, do not as it apears, belong 
to our language; and conveying no other meaning than here 
ascribed to them, cannot be confounded or mistaken: and their 
final particle including the idea of agency, properly designates the 



160 THE EXPRESION OF SPEECH. 

influence of the state of mind on the vocal sign, and that of the 
vocal sign on the ear. Thus, the thoughtive state produces the 
thoughtive sign j and the thoughtive sign produces a thoughtive state 
of mind in the hearer. The case is similar, in the influence of the 
inter-thotive and the pasionative states respectively on their vocal 
signsj and of their signs, on the hearer. The efect of the signs of 
the inter-thotivej or as I would call it, the admirative or the rev- 
erentivej and of the pasionative divisions, constitutes, in its varie- 
ties and degrees, what we have named, at the head of this section, 
the Expresion of Speech. 

We have considered only the single or individual sign, and the 
single or momentary state of mind that directs it. This state of 
mind may with its sign, be extended to the curent of discourse. 
The continuation of the same state of mind and of its apropriate 
vocal sign forms a Curent maner or Style. Of this we make three 
divisions. Each consists of a sucesion of its own peculiar con- 
stituents of mental state, and vocal sign ; and may be severally 
called, the Thotive, Inter-thotive, and Pasionative Style of reading 
and speech. The motive for taking- a separate view of the indi- 
vidual instance of the state of mind, and of its vocal signj and of 
their continued stylej and for aplying the same nomenclature in 
each casej is, that we shall sometimes refer separately to a single 
state of mind, and its signj and sometimes to a continued curent 
style : and as the style is only a continuation of this single state 
and sign, it is proper to aply the same terms to identical constituents 
in the two cases. 

In here dividing the subject of the states of mind from their 
vocal signs ; and in denoting the individuality of these states and 
their signs, as well as their sucesion in a curent style, by the same 
termsj we ofer a simple, and for present practical purposes, a sufi- 
cient outline of a clasification of the relationships between the 
mind and the voice. And were we describing Nature, to those 
only who can throw-aside the habit of an old, limited, and dis- 
tracting nomenclature, for one more recent and precise, we would 
not at this time, encumber her simplicity. But the atempts of 
the metaphysical schools to discriminate the states of the mind, 
and the vocal signs, are in greater part, so visionary, variable, 
indefinite, and erroneousj and their nomenclature, both of state 



THE EXPRESION OF SPEECH. 161 

and of sign, so vague and superficial^ that I shall try to give their 
dim gropings after both mind and voice, more meaning and pre- 
cision, by collecting some of their terms for state and sign, as 
synonyms with the threefold analytic divisions here described. 

The term Narrative, is in comon language^ with no reference to 
our proposed distinctionsj employed for the plain statement, dec- 
laration, or afirmation of a fact, and of its causes and consequences ; 
or for describing the course of a simple event. These purposes 
not requiring force, or other pasionative expresion, denote, the 
state of mind, we call thotive ; and thus direct the thotive vocal 
sign. The narative then, together with the simply declarative, 
afirmative, descriptive, inexpresive, and unimpasioned may all be 
clased with our thotive division, both as individual state and signj 
and as a continued style ; or briefly there may be, an individual nar- 
ative state of mind, and an individual narative signj and a con- 
tinued narative state of mind, and a continued narative signj and 
in like maner of the other terms. 

Several terms in comon language, indefinitely signifying states 
of mind, might when slightly altered, be clased with our admira- 
tive and reverentive. These are the sentimental, if this word has 
a meaning, the gravely pathetic, the dignified, the respectful, the 
suplicative, and the penitential ; for they have conventional mean- 
ings, which seem to corespond in character and degree, to the state 
of mind we have ascribed to our second division ; and which may 
if required, be used synonymously with its term, Inter-thotive, in 
both its individual designation and its curent style : making a dig- 
nitive state and sign, and a dignitive continued style ; and in like 
maner of the other terms. 

For synonymous clasification with the Pasionative division, comon 
language furnishes the words, impasioned, expresive, the earnestly 
interogative, exclamatory, derisive, contemptuous, and others of 
the same vehement family ; together with the numerous terms for 
the pasions. All these severaly employ the impresive forms of 
vocality, time, force, abruptnes, and intonation. The terms Khe- 
torical and Declamatory are sometimes used with reference to an 
expresive state of mind, and to energy of voice. If they were 
clased with our pasionative division, it might perhaps render their 
meaning less indefinite. The pasionative states of mind are also 



162 THE EXPRESION OF SPEECH. 

designated by the conventional terms for human pasion of every 
kind. Some of these will in a future section, ' on the signs of thot 
and pasion/ be refered to their apropriate modes and forms, among 
the named and measurable constituents of Expresive speech. 

I have not, in our arangement, given places to those two com- 
mon terms for an indefinite state of mindj Emotion and Feelingj 
since the former is not asignable by me at least, to either of the 
expresive divisions; nor to the thotive; and the latter will be 
hereafter aplied to the state of mind conected with the vocal ex- 
presion of song. With this outline of the relations between mind 
and language, we leave future observation, to class under our three- 
fold division, if aproved or corected, whatever comon terms, we 
may have overlookedj which broader and more acurate investiga- 
tion of the states of mind and of the voice, may asign to their 
proper places. 

From this view we percevej the full and effective science of elo- 
cution embraces two leading considerations. The first, that every 
individual vocal sign may convey a single state of thot, inter- 
thought, or pasion. The second, that the several states of mind, 
with their signs, when sucesively continued, form a curent style of 
discoursej or what will be described more particularly, in a future 
section, as the Drift of the voice. 

With all our definitions and divisions, it will be perceved in the 
course of this Work, how dificult it is to draw a definite line of 
separation between the thotivej the reverentivej and the pasion- 
ative states of mind ; and between the signs which severaly repre- 
sent them; and how the mental as well as the vocal diferences 
pass, by indistinguishable shades, into each other. 

It is not therefore to be suposedj these several drifts of Thot, 
Inter-thought, and Passion, with their respective signs, are used 
separately, and kept distinct from each other ; by which the ear 
might become familiar with their several peculiar characters^ and 
perceve their details, by a comparative observation of the general 
contrasts, and particular differences between their various styles. 
Were this the case, the marked vocal efect of the diferent drifts, 
each with its own character both in reading and speechj would 
have early drawn philosophic, if not vulgar atention to the striking 
diferences between their general curentsj then to the diferences 



THE EXPRESION OF SPEECH. 163 

of the individual signs that constitute the diferent curentsj and 
finaly to a full analysis of speech. 

Yet even in the natural ordination of the- voice, and more con- 
spicuously in its coruptions, the course of a drift is not strictly 
continuous and identical with itself; other individual states of 
mind, with their vocal signs, and other drifts being ocasionaly and 
variously interspersed in all oratorical and comon discourse ; and 
this by confounding iresolute observation, has been a principal 
cause why the particulars of the true relationships between mind 
and the voice were not long ago clearly perceved and named. We 
have in the course of what our vain-glorious, yet disputable asunip- 
tion calls Civilization, so disorderly mixed up our thots with our 
pasions, and our pasions with each other, that Nature, disturbed 
perhaps by human eror, in the design and fulfilment of her final 
causesj has to the transient observer, presented an aparent con- 
fusion, in the conection between the mind and the voice. And yet 
true in part to the law of adapting speech to thot and pasion, she 
still shows ocasional and striking examples of her ordinations; 
which should have enabled others, and which have directed the 
Author, to make, however imperfectly, the divisions, and nomen- 
clature here proposed. 

Let us under another view, recapitulate our acount of the 
character, uses, and transitions of the diferent vocal curents of 
discourse. 

When one or more sentences describe an object or a piece of 
machinery, or narate the course of an event, it forms the purely 
Thotive, narative, simply afirmative, or descriptive style. A curent 
of similar extent, on some dignified, plaintive, reverential, or 
solemn declaration, in the Church Service^ in epic, dramatic, and 
other elevated yet calmly expresive composition^ would be a pure 
instance of the inter-thotive, or reverentive and admirativej and 
the voice of vehement apeals in the Forum, of an excited scene on 
the Stage, of the furious liberty of temper at a universal-sufrage 
^Election, and of the uproar of a Volunteer Fireman's Law-per- 
mited fight, would give both refined and vulgar examples of the 
pasionative. These several styles or drifts, generaly ocur only in 
short sections of various extent, in the greater part of discourse. 
We may therefore have a drift of clauses, members, and whole 



164 THE EXPRESION OF SPEECH. 

sentences ; but rarely is half a page, and never a chapter, to be 
found exclusively in one continuous style. 

For an ilustration of the maner of transition from one drift to 
another, under the intermingled use of their several constituents j 
supose the thotive or narative with its simple second or tone, to 
have here and there, a word distinguished from the rest, by a 
more impresive interval, an extended time on the wave of the 
second, the full vocality of the orotund, if available^ and you 
pass to the admirative and reverentive. Again, supose the semi- 
tone and wider intervals, various waves, aded force, prolonged 
time, peculiar vocality, and abruptness to be brought into the rev- 
erentive, or to distinguish all its emphatic words ; and you rise to 
the highest forms of expresion in the pasionative style or drift. 

As the art of elocution is esentially founded on the state of the 
mind and its indication by the voicej the necesity of frequent ref- 
erence to these agencies, requiring the frequent use of their termsj 
I shall, to avoid too near a repetition of them, variously employ 
with the same meaning, the termsj state of mind; mental and 
intelectual state or condition; perhaps the new word Mentivity, 
if alowed ; and when admisible, the word, state, alone. For the 
indication by the voice, I shall variously employ the termsj vocal, 
verbal, thotive, and expresive sign ; and when admisible the word, 
sign, alone. 

From the confused and distracted atempts, in scholastic ages, to 
make something out of the almost nothing of comon knowledge 
on the voicej and from those fruitles atempts having produced a 
nearly universal opinion, that a discriminative perception of the 
' tones ' of the voice is unatainablej I have soley by means of a 
diferent method of inquiry, been enabled to ofer many important 
facts, and to propose for them a clasification and nomenclature, 
which may lead Elocutionists to listen and hear for themselves ; 
and by this extended observation, to propose divisions and terms, 
more comprehensive and exact. Nature is always at work among 
us ; and if from indolence we may not choose to scrutinize her 
ordinations, and in fear of encountering a frowning dificulty, may 
not be wiling to look her labors in the facej still the numberles 
unsucesful endeavors to name, without perceving, the wise adap- 
tation of the various conditions of the mind to the various ex- 



THE EXPRESION OF SPEECH. 



165 



presive modes of the voicej seem instinctively to show that her 
purposes, if even mistaken or perverted, have not been entirely 
lost sight-of nor forgoten. I have therefore from the indefinite 
and groping nomenclature of the careles world, and of its equaly 
careles metaphysicians, colected what seemed to me might be 
taken, as aproximate vulgar-synonyms to our definite terms on 
the subject of the relationships between the mind and the voice. 

I here propose to assist the Reader's atention and memory, by 
reducing the several preceding divisions of the individual states 
and signs of the curent styles of Expresion, to the folowingj 

TABULAR VIEW. 



Condition 

or 

States of 

mind. 



Thoughtive 

or 

Unexcited 

state. 



Inter-though- 

tive or 

Admirative 

and 

Reverentive 

state. 



Pasionative 

or 

Excited state. 



Vocal Signs 

of 
those States. 



The simple rise and fall 
and shorter wave of the in- 
terval of the second ; an un- 
obtrusive vocality ; a mod- 
erate degree of force ; and 
a short sylabic quantity. 

The semitone, the sec- 
ond, ocasionaly the third 
and fifth with their waves ; 
an extended time ; a full oro- 
tund vocality ; and a mod- 
erate but dignified force. 

The semitone, and wider 
rising and faling intervals, 
with their waves ; either a 
short or extended time ; a 
striking and varied vocal- 
ity ; abruptnes ; with high 
degrees and expresi ve forms 
of force. 



Synonyms of old conven- 
tional terms vaguely 
aplied to state, and 
style, and sign. 



Narative, simply de- 
claratory or afirmative ; 
descriptive ; dispasionate ; 
inexpresive ; unimpasion- 
ed ; emotionles ; plain and 
. even tone of voice. 

Sentimental ; gravely pa- 
thetic; reverential; digni- 
fied ; respectful ; suplica- 
tive ; penitential ; and ex- 
presive of awe and admira- 
tion. 



Impasioned ; expresi ve ; 
earnestly interogative ; de- 
clamatory; rhetorical ; con- 
temptuous ; derisive ; and 
the conventional terms for 
every vehement pasion. 



I shall not indeed be always able to entirely satisfy myself, in 
the use of every term of the preceding divisions with their syno- 
nyms. But having given a new and far-reaching analysis^ a new 
arangement and nomenclature became necesary ; and imperfect as 



166 THE EXPRESION OF SPEECH. 

it may be, the leading lines of the methodic survey will aford 
others, an example at least of a failure ; which by the negative 
asistance of a rejected eror, may help to remove some of the difi- 
culty that might otherwise delay succes. Let me however, caution 
my Readers, not to rely so implicitly on the suspicions of an 
author against himself, as hastily to confirm his concesive and due 
distrust, of what wiser and asuring time may at length show to 
be worthy of adoption. 

Of all this esay, the arangement I have been obliged to ofer 
on the subject of expresion, has delayed if not perplexed me the 
most, and satisfied me least : since it aims to divide for the pur- 
pose of instruction, what Nature in her purposed agency, seems to 
have joined by the chain, or as we may here call it, the concrete 
conection of all her creative transitions. In other parts of this 
Work, I had, where hapily no language existed, to make one for 
untold phenomena : in this, to encounter a desperate confusion in 
the language of the scholastic world, formed before it knew dis- 
tinctly what it had to name. 

The clasifications of science were instituted in part, to assist the 
working powers of the intelect; yet in fulfiling the purpose of 
comunicating and preserving knowledge, they unfortunately some- 
times produce the undesigned hindrance of its alteration or ad- 
vancement, by creating a belief of its systematic completion. Tho 
the numberles revolutions in scientific arangement are full of ad- 
monitionsj we forget how often the fictitious afinities, and the 
distinctions of system have on the one hand, presumptuously 
united the intended divisions of Nature, and on the other, broken 
the beautiful conection of her circle of truth. 

In submision to the necesities of instruction, I Jiave atempted, 
by an arangement, however imperfect, to distinguish the several 
states of mind j and the several vocal signs that represent them ; 
with the hope that future inquiry may determine their real rela- 
tionships, by a full and acurate history of the Mind, and of the 
Voice. For we may as well supose, all those works of usefulnes 
are already acomplished, which are foretold by the just and ex- 
tended powers of human observation, and the calculated promises 
of Sciencej as that those Delightful Arts, which employ while they 
regulate the refined purposes of perception, have yet disclosed their 



THE EXPRESIOX OF SPEECH. 167 

coming grandeurs and graces, prefigured, under the future exten- 
sion of knowledge and precept, in the Prophetic Book of Taste. 
Let us leave the seventh day of rest, to the holiday rejoicing of 
physicians, lawyers, priests, and politicians, who look upon their 
disastrous creations, and cuning schemes for human misery, and 
pronounce them original, and finished, and good. Let them build 
strongly around the vaunted perfection of their Theories, Codes, 
Councils, and Constitutions. Let them guard the ark of a fore- 
father's wisdom, and proclaim its unalterable holines to the people, 
for the safety, honor and emolument of the keeper. The great 
Contributions to Knowledge, like the great and progresive Crea- 
tions of Xature herself, have never yet found and perhaps never 
will find, their day of rest ; and the renowned forefathers of many 
a work of usefulnes as well as glory are, by the like merit or am- 
bition which raised their own temporary greatnes, transmuted to 
corigible children, in the eye of the advancing labor of a later age. 

It has been aleged of the expresion of speech, that a discrimi- 
nation of its concealed and delicate agency, is beyond the scrutiny 
of the human ear. If the term human ear is sarcasticaly used 
for that fruitlesly busy and slavish organ, which has so long 
listened for the clear voice of nature, amid the conflicting tumult 
of opinion and authority, we must admit and regret the truth of 
the assertion. But it is not true of a keen, industrious, and inde- 
pendent exercise of the senses; nor can it be afirmed without pro- 
fanity, of that supreme power of observation, deputed among the 
final causes of creation, for the efective gathering of truth, and the 
progresive improvement of mankind. 

Our conquests in knowledge must be the joint achievement of 
cautious, but free-minded and industrious Numbers, and of de- 
liberate, patient, and unwasted Time. Leaving then to populous 
futurity the gradual completion of the Work, I looked around for 
present asistance : and having, with more need than hope, yet with 
an untold purpose, consulted the views of others on the analytic 
means for delineating the voice of expresionj I generaly receved 
some query like this : Is it posible to recognize and measure all 
those delicate variations of sound, that have pased so long without 
detection, and that seem scarcely more amenable to sense than the 
atoms of air on w r hich they are made? It is possible to do all 



168 THE EXPRESION OF SPEECH. 

this: and if we cannot 'Find the way' for a victorious develop- 
ment of nature, 'let usj ? with the maxim, and in the contriving 
thot, and resolution of the great Carthagenian Captain 3 'let us 
Make one.' 

It will not be denied, that vocality, force, time, and intonation, 
under all their forms, constituting the expresion of speech, may be 
distinctly heard; nor will it be maintainedj there is the least 
liability, even in the comon ear, to misaprehend, or to confound 
the varied states of mind, they respectively convey. No : still it is 
objected, that the peculiar kind, the measurable degree, and the 
comingling variety of those forms cannot be distinguished. But 
as the vocal movements thus distinctly audible, include all these 
conditions ; and the states and purposes of the mind are so readily 
recognized under all their kinds, degrees, and combinations, I leave 
it to those who make the objection, to ask themselves^ if a full 
and clear discrimination of the vocal signs is not implied in that 
recognition. In truth, even the most delicate voices of thot and 
expresion, tho suposed to be imperceptible, are always distinctly 
heard ; and if the ready comprehension of their mental purpose 
may decide the question, are always recognized and measured, in 
the strictest meaning of the words : but they have never been ana- 
lytical}) perceved, and definitely named. For even those who have 
pretended to observe, and to teach on the subject of the voice have 
as yet, no language for the discriminations, absolutely necesary in 
the explanation of speech, and every day instinctively made, even 
by the popular ear. I propose to give a precise history of the 
vocal means for representing the various states of thot and of 
pasion ; to point out their modes, forms, and varieties, and to asign 
a definite nomenclature to them. 

There is perhaps no vain confidence, in suposing the Reader to 
be now well acquainted with the character of the radical and van- 
ishing movement. This wide-reaching function of the voice, has 
been represented under its diferent forms, in speech and song. 
We have traced it in the literal elements, and seen its influence in 
directing the phenomena of sylables. I have yet to show its in- 
strumentality in the various and delicate uses of expression : and 
if I shall be able thereby to unfold the principles of this marvel- 
ous mystery of Nature, it will be, by developing some of the 



THE PITCH OF THE VOICE. 169 

particulars of that greater marvel of agency, in which a wise 
simplicity of means is employed thruout her profuse and never- 
wasteful creations. 

Five general divisions of the modes of vocal sound were made 
in the first section of this essay. In summary repetition, they arej 
Vocality, or kind of voice ; Time, or the measure of its duration ; 
Force, or the variations of strength and weaknes ; Abruptnes, or 
an explosive uterance; and Pitch, or the variations of acutenes 
and gravity. It will be shown, that each of these general modes 
is inclusive of many forms and varieties, with their diferent 
degrees; and that the now measurably thotive and pasionative 
signs of speech, consist of the unmysterious use of the diferent 
forms and varieties of these modes, and of their diferent combi- 
nations with each other. 






, SECTION VII. 

Of the Pitch of the Voice. 

The mode of the voice we have now to consider, altho not 
more esential than the others, in the constituency of speech, has 
nevertheles, from our ignorance of its. particular forms and uses, 
been a subject of wonder ; and from our childish love of wonder 
has become especialy a subject of interesting inquiry. To this 
mode of Pitch belong the many forms and varieties of Intona- 
tion, or as they have been called in the schools of Rhetoric and 
Prosody, by a sort of prescriptive determination, the ' undiscover- 
able or unasignable Tones or acents of the voice/ 

The Greeks in their fondnes for definition and division, were 
always disposed to go to the root of whatever knowledge they be- 
leved to have a root, and at the same time to be worthy of inquiry. 
They seem therefore, as we might infer from their want of thotful 
curiosity j seting aside their neglect of observation j to have con- 
sidered a full analysis of speech, as impracticable, or as useles. 
Either from these or other causes, the subject so feebly atracted 
12 



170 THE PITCH 

their atention, that we might be disposed to think they derived 
their knowledge of the Sliding or concrete function, from Egypt 
or from some earlier Eastern source. Had it been discovered in 
the school of Pythagoras, or of Aristoxenus, it does not seem 
probable, that having found this key to the entrance of speech, 
they would have closed their hearing to what yet remained within 
the secrecy of nature : for, with a moderate degree of curiosity, 
and a very little further observation of the simple concrete, they 
would have perceved that important subdivision of its structure, 
which we have described as the Radical and Vanish. However 
this may have been, neither the Greeks nor the Romans, aparently 
writing all they knew on the practical uses of the concrete acentj 
have left the least record of their opinions, their expectations, or 
their hopes on this subject, beyond the restricted limit of what 
they already knew. Yet indispensable as their discovery of the 
concrete was to the development of speech^ it is certain, they 
never aded to the first and simple perception of this acentual slide, 
the smalest item of discriminative analysis. The gramarians and 
comentators of the Alexandrian, Byzantine, and of subsequent 
schools, in discussing the subject of Greek acent, never extended 
their inquiry beyond the indefinite opinions of more ancient 
writers ; while still later authors and teachers, with the determined 
faith and worship of classical scholarship, beleving it was not done 
by the Greeks, because it realy could not be done at all, have at 
last united in a general persuasion, nay conviction, that any further 
discovery is impossible.* 

* As Dionysius of Halicarnassus, in his treatise ' On the Arrangement of 
Words,' has described more particularly, the character and practical uses of 
this acent or inflection, than any other Greek or Eoman writer^ I shall, to 
show how limited and indefinite he is, give from his eleventh section, an 
extract of all he says on this point ; and shall insert in its course some 
explanatory parenthetic remarks. 

' There is in oratorical discourse, a kind of tune, difering from that of Song, 
and (from the melody) of Music, only in degree, but not in kind or quality.' 
( We suppose he means that each employs intervals, but speech fewer, and those 
of less extent.) Imediately folowing-up the thot, he adds : ' There is in ora- 
torical discourse, (and in music,) the like tune, that charms the ear; the like 
rythmus, that sustains the voice ; (by the easy and graceful step of acent and 
quantity ;) the like variety that excites atention ; and a like conformity of the 
whole to its purpose ; the only diference being in the more and the less. ' (In 



OF THE VOICE. » 171 

If then we have come to a describable perception of the con- 
stituents of the voice, let us learn to apply it. 

There is in our first section, a compendious view of the various 
forms of Pitchj from the minute interval of the tremulous scale, 
to the octave, and beyond it, both in their upward and downward 

the number and extent of the intervals.) ' In oratorical discourse, the tune of 
the voice is restricted to the interval of a Fifth, or thereabouts. That is, it 
does not vary beyond three tones and a half, {these being the constituents of a 
Fifth,) either in an upward or downward direction. It is not to be suposedj 
all the words of discourse are to be pronounced with the same accent ; (inflec- 
tion or concrete ;) for one is to have an acute, (rising,) another a grave (faling) 
acent, and another to have both, (the acute, joined in continuation with the 
grave, on the same sylable,) which is called the Circumflex.' Again, ' some 
words have the acute and the grave separately heard on diferent sylables. In 
disylables, there is no middle place for aplying an acute or grave. (A truism ; 
for where there is no midle sylable there can be no midle accent. ) In polysylables 
of every kind, one of the sylables has the acute accent and the rest the grave.' 
1 The tune (say intonation) of instruments and of song, is by no means limited 
as in speech, to this interval of the Fifth ; but runs through the octave, Fifth, 
fourth, second, semitone, and according to some, the quarter tone.' 

Here is all that Dionysius says, on what we have been taught to think the 
profound knowledge and skill of the Greeks, in the philosophy and practice 
of this singing, or as we must now call it intonation, in speech. Nor is this 
to be taken as a mere sumary of a fuler detail of knowledge ; as the descrip- 
tion contains more particulars than all the still-remaining rhetorical and 
musical writings of the ancients. But we findj this only atempt to describe 
in detail, the melody of Grecian discourse, refers especialy to that equaly 
obscure, and disputed question j the Acentual stress on sylables ; which cer- 
tainly would not have been the case, could any of the numerous authors on 
this subject have had the least thot of a natural and comprehensive system of 
intonation. Indeed the acount of the ' tune ' of speech, by Dionysius, and by 
all the writers on rhetoric and music, seems to have been given only under 
some vague, and as we must now consider it, absurd notion of the acute, grave, 
and circumflex acent or inflection, being invariably applied to certain syl- 
ablesj both when pronounced alone, and in the curent of discourse. We 
must therefore conclude^ from this belief of the Greeks, that all their sylabic 
acents were unchangeable^ it could never have entered their minds, to con- 
ceve a measurable and varied melody on sucesive sylables in speech. It would 
be wrong, to sayj Dionysius and his Grecians did not know their own opin- 
ions about the voice ; but I must think, a strict observer in this case will say, 
they knew almost nothing of its reality. "When a false perception is measured 
by itself, as hapens in systems raised upon authority or conceit, all that is 
defective, distorted, or superfluous, comes out in perfect acord with its own 
rule, and blinds us to the eror. It is a comparison with the rule of observa- 
tion, which is found only in nature, that shows its deformity. 



172 THE PITCH 

direction, together with their union into various forms of the 
wave. The greater part of these forms, like those of Vocality, 
Time, and Force, are employed in the expresion of pasion : and 
only a few for denoting simple thought. It is my design to show 
how these diferent forms of pitch are used for the several condi- 
tions and purposes of the mind. 

Man, notwithstanding the vain-glorious boast of his moral 
destiny, his religion, and his progresive civilization^ is now as 
he has been, so generaly, an Animal of fierce desires or passions, 
and so rarely a being of observation and reflectionj that we must 
not be surprised to find the greater number of his vocal signs, 
expressive of this ardent and predominating complexion of his 
character. Of all these upward and downward intervals of the 
scalej and all the waves in their direct and inverted, equal and 
unequal, single and double forms, there is but one which is not 
so employed. The simple rise and fall of the second, with its 
wave, when used for narative, or for the plain statement of an 
unexcited thotj is the only intonated voice of man that does not 
spring from a pasionative, or in some degree, an earnest condition 
of his mind. If we listen to his ignorance, his fears, superstition, 
selfishnes, arogance, and injustice, we hear them under the forms 
of vivid vocal expression. We have the rising intervals of the 
third, fifth, and octave, for interogatives, not of kindnes, but of 
the fierce and persecuting Catechists of our life and faith ; the 
downward third, fifth, and octave, for dogmatic, or tyranical 
comand ; waves for the wonder of ignorance, the snarling of 
ill-humor, and the curling voice of contempt ; the piercing hight 
of the falsete, for the scream of terror, the brawls of intemper- 
ance, and the shouts of the fanatic around the stake of the 
martyr ; the semitone, for the peevish whine of discontent, and for 
the puling cant of the hypocrite and knave, who thus strive in 
vain to conceal their crafty designs. Then listen to him on those 
rare ocasions, when he forgets himself and his pasions, and has 
to uter a useful thot, or plainly to naratej and you will hear the 
second, the unobtrusive interval of the scale, in the admirable 
adaptation of Nature, made the simple sign of the dispasionate 
perception of her wisdom and truth. In short, man as an Indi- 
vidual, is in his forms of intonation, only the type of an eternal 



OF THE VOICE. 173 

National Character ; always prone to be vividly expresive of its 
vain-glory, and its emulative contempt of others; emphatic in 
self-will; vociferous in cupidity; and unjustly agresive in its 
high-toned asumptions and imperative threats ; with the piercing 
and prevailing cry of war, from within and from without, and only 
ocasionaly resting in the quiet intonation of moral and intelectual 
peace, with the Temple of the pasionative vocal Janus shut. 

In describing the radical and vanish, the simple interval of the 
inexpresive second was represented as an individual function, 
under its form of the equable concrete, on a single tonic element. 
We will consider in the next section, its aplication to sucesive 
sylables and words, in sentences of continuous speech. This con- 
tinuous style or Drift of speech, formed by the simple thotive 
second, cannot from the character of that second, have what we 
call expresion. It may therefore seem that continuous speech in 
the second, is designed to be a plain and colorles ground, for the 
contrasted display of the vivid voice of wider or pasionative inter- 
vals, aplied to ocasional sylables in its course. And here the 
Reader may perceve one motive for our proposed distinction be- 
tween the non-expresive, so to call it, and the expresive character 
of the constituents of speech. 

It was formerly stated that the notes of the musical scale, under 
a certain order of sucesion, constitute the melody of song; and 
we now have to show in what maner a sucesion of concrete and 
discrete intervals in the speaking scale constitutes, under some 
peculiarity of structure, the Melody of Speech. 

Since I am about to represent that continuous melody of a second, 
or tone, as the ground upon which other intervals, and other con- 
stituents of speech are to be distributed, I must beg the student to 
give his deliberate atention to the subject. 

The sucesion of sylables in plain narative or descriptive style, 
being thru the intervals of a concrete and discrete tone, the melody 
is specified as Diatonic. 



174 THE DIATONIC 



SECTION VIII. 



Of the Diatonic Melody of Speech ; together with an inquiry, 

how far the Musical terms, Key and Modulation, 

are aplicable to it. 

When the radical and vanishing movement was described, it 
was regarded individual^ or as aplied to a single sylable. But as 
speech consists for the most part of a series of sylables, on each of 
which some form of the concrete instinctively ocurs, it is necesary 
to consider the use and relationships of the radical and vanish, in 
its repeated aplication to the sucesive sylables of discourse. 

In plain Narrative or Description, or as we called it, Thotive 
discourse, the concrete of each sylable moves thru the interval of 
a tone : and the sucesive concretes have a diference in the place of 
their pitch, relatively to each other. The aplication of these con- 
cretes to sylables, and the maner of varying the sucesion of the 
places of their pitch, are exemplified on the folowing altered 
sentence of the Soothsayer, in Antony and Cleopatra. 

He reads in na ture's in fi nite 




book 


of 


se ere cy. 


J 


-r 


-r 


7 -■ * ..- 



If we supose these lines and the included spaces to denote, each 
in proximate order, the diference of a tone, the sucesion of the 
several radicals with their isuing vanish, will show the places of 
the sylables of the superscribed words, in easy and unimpasioned 
uterance. The perception of the efect of the concretes, and of 
their sucesions here exemplified, is caled the Melody of Speech. 

A strict definition of the term, melody of speech, embraces the 



MELODY OF SPEECH. 175 

modes of pitch, force, and time, together with the pause; and 
regards likewise, intervals of the scale wider than above exempli- 
fied, as well as intervals with a downward movement ; for all these 
are employed in the course of melody: yet as each of them con- 
sistently with their place and purpose, will be separately described 
hereafter, the present section is limited to the subject of pitch, 
when the progresion is made exclusively through the rising con- 
crete, and the rising and faling discrete interval of a tone ; consti- 
tuting the proper Diatonic Melody. 

The diference of pitch in this progresion is at first to be per- 
ceved only by close observation, and by well-directed experiment. 
The pupil being able to intonate the scale, let him practice the in- 
terval of a second on sylables, instead of on the simple tonic ele- 
ment ; using a diferent sylable for each degree. Thus prepared, let 
him read the line of the preceding diagram, and try to recognize its 
intonation by slowly pronouncing, or rather hacking-out only the 
tonic element of each sylable ; and giving those elements so short 
and abrupt a sound, that the reading being inarticulate may re- 
semble the sucesions of a short cough. This method will make 
the variations of pitch more distinguishable, than when the other 
elements of the sylable are utered together with the tonic. 

If this contrived uterance should not aford a clear perception, 
that the radical of a given sylable rises or falls a tone, from the 
place of the preceding one, let the pupil measure the questionable 
relation of the two sounds, by the rule of the scale, in the folow- 
ing maner. While he pronounces the two sylables as if he were 
reading, let him notice their pitch, as degrees of the scale. When 
the second is above the first, those two sylabic sounds will form the 
first two degrees of the rising scale ; and continuing to rise by an 
alternate use of these sylables, he will complete that scale. When 
the second sylable is below the first, he will, on ading one or more 
sylables below the second, recognize the peculiar efect heard at 
the close of the scale, and on a fall of the voice at a period of 
discourse ; for this last efect is produced only by downward de- 
grees. In the use of the means here proposed, the ear must with 
divided atention, be directed, aparently at the same time to the 
progres of the equable concrete in the spoken melody, and to the 
sucesion of notes on the musical scale. 



176 THE DIATONIC 

To explain the system of melody, we must consider the sucesion 
of concretes both in the course of a sentence, and at its close. 
These divisions may be respectively termed, the Curent melody, 
and the melody of the Cadence. 

The curent melody, or the sucesion of rise and fall, employed 
on all the sylables of a sentence, except the last three, may be thus 
described. 

In simple thotive or narative language, having no expresion, 
every sylable consists of the rising equable-concrete of a tone. 
The sucesion of these concretes has a variation of pitch, in which 
the radicals of any two never difer from each other more than the 
interval of a tone. 

To distinguish these two forms of melodial progresion by short 
and referable terms, let us call the concrete rise of each sylablej 
the Concrete Pitch of melody ; and the place asumed by the radical 
of each concrete, above or below that of the precedingj the Eadi- 
cal Pitch. In the foregoing notation, every one of the sylables 
has the concrete pitch of a tone, pasing from line to space, or from 
space to line. The two, respectively composing the words nature, 
and book of, difer a discrete tone from each other in their radical 
pitch; the radical pitch of the three sylables in infinite is the 
same. 

It will be shown, in its proper placej the melody employed at 
some of the pauses in discourse requires a certain order of radical 
pitch, for justly and agreeably denoting both its meaning, and the 
diferent degrees of conection between its divisions. The parts 
within the divisions made by these pauses, have in general, no 
fixed sucesion : for the efect will be both proper and agreeable, if 
the melody of these parts is made by avoiding a continuation of 
the same radical pitch, or of an alternate rising and faling, or 
any other course of too remarkable a regularity. I ofer three 
diferent notations of the same sentence ; where the order of radical 
pitch in each reading is varied ; the above caution observed ; and 
where the melody has a simple construction. 



MELODY OF SPEECH. 177 

He ne ver drinks, but Ti mon's sil ver 




* <i ~ * -J— j 



treads up on his lip. 



^ 



He ne ver drinks, but Ti mon's sil ver 



zz 



/ 4 4L_dL 



treads up- on his 


up. 


«r * * 4 


W w 


^ 



He ne ver drinks, but Ti mon's sil- 



4—4—*- 



treads 


up— 


— on 


his 


lip. 


* 


X 


-r 






' - d - 



Other arangements of a proper and agreeable melody might be 
made for this sentence, on the principles of the varied sucesion of 
radical pitch here exemplified. But, however varied the sucesion, 
its forms are all reducible to a limited number of agregates of the 
radical and vanish. These may be caled the Phrases of Melody. 
They are shown in the notation of the folowing lines; where 
the curent is constructed in a maner not unsuitable to the simple 
narative of the couplet ; tho here, as in some other instances of 



178 



THE DIATONIC 



this esay, the melody is designed to ilustrate description, rather 
than to furnish examples of apropriate elocution. 



That quar — ter 


most the 


skil — ful Greeks an — 

at 


-noy, 


«/ ef *£ 


* V 


d* 


J " 


9—9 


V 


W 





Monotone. Paling Ditone. Eising Tritone. Kising Ditone. 
"Where yon wild fig trees join the walls of Troy. 



*-*£-^\-**- S « | * «^ 



Paling Tritone. Alternation. Triad of the Cadence. 

When two or more sylables as in the above example, ocur 
sucesively on the same place of radical pitch, it may be caled the 
phrase of the Monotone. 

When the radical pitch is a tone above that of a preceding 
sylable, the phrase may be termed the Rising Ditone. 

When the radical pitch is a tone below that of a preceding 
sylable, the Faling Ditone. 

When the radicals of three sylables sucesively ascend a tone, 
the Rising Tritone. 

When three radicals sucesively descend a tone, the Faling Tri- 
tone. 

A train of three or more sylables, alternately a tone above and 
below each other, may be caled an Alternation or the Alternate 
phrase. This distinction may seem to be unecesary, as the alter- 
nate phrase is no more than a repeated use of the rising or the 
faling ditone ; yet as it frequently ocurs in speech, the term Al- 
ternation is for brevity here asigned to this particular phrase of 
melody. 

When three sylables sucesively descend in their radical pitch, 
at the close of a sentence, the phrase may be caled the Cadence, 
or Triad of the Cadence ; which always has a faling vanish from 
its lowest radical. This is indeed, a faling tritone, but since the 
vanish of the lowest radical in the tritone of the cadence always 



MELODY OF SPEECH. 179 

descends, as will be shown presently, I have thot proper to con- 
tradistinguish and to specify it, as the Triad. 

It is to be remarked, that the names, and construction of the 
phrases of melody are the same, when the sylabic vanish has the 
downward course ; the movements of the radical pitch, especialy 
constituting the phrases, not being afected by the direction of the 
concrete pitch. 

I have not been able to resolve the melody of plain narative, 
or thotive discourse, into more than these seven phrases. It 
would seem to be part of the ordination of the diatonic melody, 
not to admit a sucesive rise, or a fall of radical pitch to any 
great extent, by proximate degrees. It is here limited to the tri- 
tone, in both directions, because it apears to mej a further pro- 
gresion, though it may be ocasionaly used, is not agreeable. 
Whether the propriety of excluding sucesively rising and faling 
phrases of more than three concretes from diatonic or thotive 
speech, might be grounded on the perception^ that the efect of such 
phrases somewhat resembles the efect of song, particularly in 
ascending the scale, whereby the semitone is traversedj I leave to 
be determined by the observation of others. 

The three examples given in a preceding page, of the varied 
curent melody of the same sentence^ and the statement that the 
phrases might be even further agreeably diversified, enable us 
to percevej how a speaker, under the direction of the science of 
melody, and with the habit of aplying it, may readily avoid a 
monotonous continuation of the same radical pitch, and of formal 
returns of similar progresions. For notwithstanding the pitch is 
necesarily limited to the change aforded by the rise and the fall 
of a single tone, yet the diferent phrases of melody, and their 
practicable interchanges, furnish varied sequences of dissimilar 
pasages, quite suficient to prevent a recognition of identity in the 
sucesion. The ear of a skilful speakerj directed by the unering 
habit which science, in time asumes, will be always on the watch, 
against the too frequent repetition of the same phrases : and the 
variety in their several forms, afords an easy exemption from this 
cause of monotony. The principles that govern the sucesions of 
pitch in the melody of speech, are similar to those for the arange- 
ment of varied acent and quantity, in the rythmus of well ad- 



180 THE DIATONIC 

justed prose. Excelence in each is the work of an educated, and 
discerning ear; and its habitual and almost involuntary perception 
is not less efective in one instancej by securing the beauties of a 
varied intonation, than in the other j by rejecting the prosodial 
measures of acknowledged verse. 

If the foregoing description of the sucesions of pitch in plain 
narative is corect, we may, upon strict etymology, call the sum 
of those sucesions the Diatonic Melody of speech. For in the 
first place, the vanish of each separate concrete rises thru the 
space of a tone ; and in the second, the changes of radical pitch 
are made thru the same intervals. We learn then, that the 
melody is made partly in the concrete, and partly in the discrete 
scale. The radical and vanish of each sylable is strictly concrete ; 
the transition from one sylable to another is strictly discrete. 
The reader may however, in the last diagram, merely notice, for 
it is a mater of no great practical importance^ that transitions 
of the diferent phrases, give a diferent extent to the distances 
between any one radical, and the close of the preceding vanish. 
The constituents of the rising ditone and tritone have appar- 
ently no discrete interval between them; for where the vanish 
closes, the suceding radical begins. The monotone has a discrete 
second. The faling ditone and tritone, when the vanish rises, 
have two discrete tones, or the interval of a third. But these and 
similar diferences produce, if we except the instance of the two 
discrete tones, no perceptible effect in the melody ; for in the case 
of the rising ditone, where the voices of two sylables would seem 
to joinj the full abruptness of the radical, makes a plain distinction 
between itself and the feebleness of the preceding vanish. 

The uses of the concrete and the radical pitch above described, 
point out two esential distinctions between the melody of speech 
and that of song. And first : song generaly employs the protracted 
radical or protracted vanish, on all its extended sylables ; whereas 
speech always employs the simple concrete, or the wave. Second : 
in the diatonic melody of speech, the radical pitch procedes by 
proximate degrees, or changes of a single tone. The melody of 
song procedes variously both by proximate degrees, and by skips 
of wider intervals of the scale. 

In treating hereafter, on emphasis, and on interogative sentences, 



MELODY OF SPEECH. 181 

the ocasions and maner of using wider radical changes in speech, 
will be shown. The melody of simple narative or inexpresive 
speech, now before us, always moves by proximate degrees. 

Having given the name of Diatonic Melody to the current in- 
tonation of the dispasionate or thotive state of mind, and having 
learned that this intonation should consist of a certain inexpresive 
Or thotive vocal signj we may perceve the propriety of aplying the 
name of that melody, both to the state and the sign. In adition 
then to the nomenclature in the sixth section, I shall employ the 
term, diatonic, as synonymous with that of thotivej for the indi- 
vidual state of mind, and the individual vocal sign ; and for the 
style or drift of the same state, and sign. 

We procede to analyze the intonation aplied to the three final 
sylables of a sentence ; and which, from its position and peculiar 
purpose, I have contradistinguished as the melody of the Cadence. 

When the eight notes of the musical diatonic scale are utered, 
both ascending and descending, by a repetition of the word Cor- 
dova, the apropriation of sylables will bej cor-do-va cor-do-va 
cor-do ; and descendingj cor-do cor-do-va cor-do-va. By this sol- 
faing if I may so speak, on these sylables, the last repetition of 
the word in the descent, is alotted to the three lower notes of the 
scale ; the final sylable making a full close on its key-note. In 
this experiment, the intonation is suposed to be by the protracted 
note of song ; as it would certainly be so made, by a person fa- 
miliar with the scale. Yet while descending, if these last three 
notes of song be changed to equable concretes of speech, with a 
downward vanish, the efect on the ear will be identical with that 
of the same word, properly utered at a full period of discourse. 
From this and other trials, it may be learned, that the cadence in 
speech, is always made with three sucesively downward radicals, 
from the line of the curent melody ; or by other downward concrete 
movements of the like extent. 

The most remarkable effect of the cadence lies in another point. 
All the radical sounds of the curent melody are represented in the 
preceding diagrams, as terminating in a rising vanish ; yet we shall 
learn hereafter, that the purposes of variety often require the use 
of a downward concrete. The purpose of this downward concrete 
in the cadence, is to bring the curent to a close ; and with this in- 



182 ' THE DIATONIC 

tention, the last constituent or its concrete terminative is always 
made by the downward vanish of a tone, or even a wider interval. 
This descent of the concrete, here so easily distinguishable from its 
rise, asists in producing the repose at the end of a sentence ; and 
constitutes, in conection with the series of three descending radi- 
cals, the esential characteristic of the cadence. 

It was stated above, that each sylable of the eurent diatonic 
melody has a concrete tone apropriated to it. The concretes of the 
cadence are not always so asigned. Let us for the sake of reference, 
designate the constituent concretes of the cadence, by their numeral 
positions. 

In the First form of the cadence, the first, second, and third 
constituent has each a coresponding sylable, with a downward 
vanish on the last. From the rising vanish on two of its constit- 
uents, let us call it the Rising Triad. 

Sweet is the breath of morn. 




The Second form has a similar apropriation of concretes to syl- 
ables j with a downward vanish on each constituent. Let this be 
caled the Faling Triad ; or, as it denotes the most complete close, 
the Full Cadence. 

The air was faned by un num ber'd plumes. 




4 4 5 



These first two forms may also be caled Tripartite. 

In the Third, the first and second concretesj or a concrete that 
ocupies the conjoined intervals of the first and second j is alotted 
to a single sylable. From the first and second tones being here 
set to one sylable, call this the First Duad. 



With 


tur — et crest 


and sleek en am el'd 


neck. 


1 df 


& ^ *f 


tf j-r & «T m 




f «>gr 




mo *\ 


*s 



MELODY OF SPEECH. 183 

In the Fourth, the second and third coalesce on one sylable. 
This union of the second and third tones we call the Second Duad. 



The 


mean — 


ing, 


not the 


name, 


I 


call. 


\^~ 


4" 


4 




4 


4 


-H 


• W 







In the Fifth, the three constituents are apropriated to one long 
sylable. As this is the least impresive form of the close, we call 
it the Feeble Cadence. 



No, 


by 


the 


rood 


not 


so. 


_ 


* 


-r 


w 


«T 




\ w V 



In the Sixth form, which should properly be called a False 
Cadence, the second constituent is omited, as in the folowing 
notation. 



Of 


•wiles 


more in ex — 


— pert I boast 


not. 


4 




4 4 & 


4 * * 







4 


W w 


JQgf 


^ 



This takes place, when the ultimate and penult sylables of a 
sentence are each so short, that giving to either, the length of two 
conjoined concretes, would deform pronunciation. It is to be 
avoided, by making the two short sylables, the second and third, 
of a tripartite form. 

In this last example, the cadence should be properly tripartite 
or a sucesive descent of three tones, on the words, I boast not If 
a reader by unskilful management, neglects to set the sylable boast, 
with the radical pitch of a tone below J, he will be unable to com- 
plete the cadence, by a downward prolongation of the short sylable 
not, thru the interval of two tones, as shown in the fourth form of 
the cadence. But a full close cannot be made without the third 
constituent^ or an extension of the second, by a downward vanish 
into its place ; and as the sylable not, on acount of its short time, 



184 THE DIATONIC 

is incapable of this last condition, in a deliberate cadence the 
second constituent must be omited, and a defective or false cadence 
made by a skip to the last interval of the triad. 

From this acount of the cadence, we have learned that its con- 
struction is in part directed by the time of sylables. The tripartite 
forms may be used under any condition of quantity ; should the 
three, and even the two final sylables be short, and not admit of 
prolongation, it is the only one available. When the penult alone 
is long, the first duad may be used ; the second duad and the feeble 
each requires a long quantity in the last sylable. 

Of the six forms of the cadence, all except the last give by 
apropriate use, a satisfactory and agreeable close; the first and 
second, which procede by an equal number of concretes and syla- 
bles, being of the easiest execution. The third, fourth, and fifth, 
each conjoining the spaces of two and three Concretes respectively 
on a single sylable, require unusual facility in the management of 
Quantity. Skill in comanding the time of uterance will enable an 
acomplished reader to perform with equal ease and elegance, these 
three varieties of cadence, and to give a faultles close, however 
unexpectedly he may meet with a period in discourse; whereas 
the ordinary reader frequently fails in the melody of his cadence, 
from being limited to the use of the tripartite. For should his 
curent melody be so continued, that a monotone or rising ditone 
reaches to the penult sylable, the cadence will necesarily be awk- 
ward or falsej either from the last sylable being short, or from his 
being unable to manage his time and intonation on a single long 
one. The sixth, or last described form of the cadence, ocurs oca- 
sionally with the mass of speakers ; but it is strictly forbiden by 
the rule of a good composition in melody. 

The fifth form of the cadence, which is made restrictively upon 
the last sylable, is peculiar. It apears that the voice does pass 
downward to the same extent of pitch, as when the cadence is made 
in the tripartite form ; yet by this wider descent of the first con- 
stituent, the radicals of the second and third constituents are lost. 
Now it is the fulnes of the radical that draws the atention of the 
ear to the discrete changes of pitch, and conspicuously marks the 
descent of the triad at the close. The omision therefore of the 
radicals of the second and third concretes, lesens the impressivenes 



MELODY OF SPEECH. 185 

of this form, and justifies its term, Feeble Cadence. When the 
reader can folow the notation, he will perceve a diference between 
the efect of the full and the feeble close ; and will admit, that the 
full or faling triad with its downward vanishes, produces a more 
satisfactory condition of the period. 

In the diagrams of the cadence, it apears, by measuring from 
the radical of the first constituent, to the extreme of the downward 
vanish of the last, that all the forms except the fifth, embrace the 
interval of a fourth. And tho I have marked this last form, 
nominaly as a third, yet the feeble cadence may be made by an 
extension of the concrete, downward to a fourth or fifth. Nor do 
I denyj the downward concrete of all the constituents may not, on 
ocasion, reach beyond the tone here asigned to it. The interval 
of the third is asumed as the characteristic of the feeble cadence, 
because it is the smalest downward interval that has, in its place, 
the efect of a close; and the efect, or so to call it, the punctuative 
intonation of this Feeble cadence is such, that the ear alows a 
speaker either to pause after it, or to procede in his discourse. 

A proper construction of the cadence is esential to the just 
melody of speech ; for having the peculiar character of a close, 
and ocuring more rarely than the other phrases, it does more em- 
phaticaly afect the ear ; and its position at the pause, necesarily 
subjects it to discriminative atention. It must be well known to 
those who have witnesed the eforts of children, that the proper 
management of a close of the voice in reading is acquired with 
great dificulty, and after a length of time. I have heard ofensive 
deviations from the true rule of the cadence, by actors of long 
practice and considerable skillj who would have guarded their 
uterance against the aleged fault, if their powers instead of being 
exercised only in the benumbing school of imitation, had been 
directed by that freedom and energy which should govern the 
efective powers of speech. 

In the first section of this essay, the term Key was defined, to 
signify a certain arangement of the constituents of the musical 
scale ; and we now procede to inquire with what propriety the 
term is aplied to the melodial ranges of the speaking voice. 

As a generic term in music, Key designates the proper sucession 
of tones and semitones in the diatonic scale. It includes several 
13 



186 THE DIATONIC 

species of a similar order of sucesions, caried on from each of the 
several places of the scale, as the begining of those similar orders. 
It was shownj there are twelve keys in music, founded on the 
semitonic divisions ; within each of which, an air or melody may 
be restrictively performed ; with a regulated method, however, of 
conducting that melody, from one to another, successively thru the 
whole twelve, by what is called Modulation. An agreeable mel- 
ody may likewise be made upon a progresion of the scalej with 
the semitones diferently placed, from those of the progresion, de- 
scribed in the first section. The diatonic scale has two kinds of 
sucesion. In one a semitone lies between the third and fourth 
notes, and between the seventh and octave, as formerly tat ; con- 
stituting the kind of sucesion caled the Major scale, or Mode. In 
the other, a semitone lies between the second and third notes, and 
the fifth and sixth in descending the scalej and between the second 
and third, and the seventh and eighth in ascending ; forming the 
sucesion of the Minor Mode. As a diatonic series may be aranged 
from twelve points of the scaler so there may be twenty-four keys ; 
twelve constructed in the Major Mode, and twelve in the Minor. 
A melody in music formed on the latter mode, has a plaintive 
expresion, from the peculiar position of the semitones. The plain- 
tivenes of speech, we shall learn hereafter, is produced by an 
entirely diferent method of intonation. 

The melody of Music, both in the major and in the minor scale, 
is variously made by progresions of skips, and of conjoint degrees, 
thru a series of five tones and two semitones, in a given key ; and 
the song or movement so constructed is terminated with entire 
satisfaction to the ear, when brought to a close on the first point of 
the series, caled the key-note. 

The melody of Narative or plain unimpasioned Speech procedes 
by conjoint degrees only ; and its satisfactory close at a period of 
discourse is efected by a descent in radical pitch of three conjoint 
degrees, with a downward concrete from the last. The scale of the 
speaking voice has no fixed place for semitones ; nor is it limited 
like that of music, to a peculiar arangement of seven constituent 
intervals. When a person can speak distinctly thru a compass 
of ten diatonic degrees^ included between the lowest pitch of ar- 
ticulate utterance and the highest point of the natural voicej his 



MELODY OF SPEECH. 187 

melody may by the use of a sucesion of proper conjoint phrases, be 
caried in the folowing manner, by any wandering course of ascent 
and descent, within these boundaries. Let him take his first syl- 
able on the first place of this suposed range. A ditone will raise 
the melody to the second, and an aditional concrete on that second 
place, will make the phrase of the monotone. From this, a ditone 
will lead him upward to the third place ; and in like maner as- 
cending, the melody may be caried to the tenth. From this 
utmost elevation, a faling ditone will bring him to the ninth ; a 
monotone on this will prepare the voice for another ditone descent 
to the eighth. Having by a similar progress reached the third 
placej the triad of the cadence, with the downward concrete of its 
final constituent, will close the melody on the first. 

In the foregoing description, the melody is conducted formaly 
up and down, to show the maner of changing the pitch, by avoid- 
ing more than two directly sucesive rising or faling radicals. But 
the rising tritone may also be used both in ascending and descend- 
ing; and the progres varied by a longer monotone, and by defer- 
ing the rise, or the fall, with the use of respectively an ocasional 
phrase, of contrary movement. It is by avoiding an ascent and 
descent of more than three concretes in sucesion, that the desirable 
changes thru acutenes and gravity in speech, may be efected in an 
easy and agreeable maner : for the beauty of melody consists, both 
in skilfuly varying the order of phrases, as they move onwardsj 
and in correctly managing the rise and fall within the whole com- 
pass of intonation. The following notation shows the progres 
of the voice within a compass of nine diatonic degrees ; the rule of 
a gradual rise and fall being observed, and the melody being, 
therein agreeably diversified. 



If 


thou 


dost 


slan — 


der 


her 


and 


tor — ture me, 




*r 






*r 




<& 


rf 


¥ 


«s «r 


¥~. 


«r 


w 


* 











Ne — ver 


pray 


more : 


a — ban-don 


all 


re morse ; 












«r d 


of 


a 


m r 4 


4 


Gf & 




V 


^T 


€T4T @ 






.. ... 



188 THE DIATONIC 

On hor or's head hor rors ac cu mu — late; 



~~ ~ — — 


flf «J ^ 


of 


& 


¥ & iff <*f 








W ^ V ©F &~~ 





Do deeds 


to make 


Hea-ven weep, all 


earth 


a mazed 




IM ^ 


<ftif * m 


4f 


.4 \ 


■of & 


^ ^ 






V 




i 



For 


no-thing canst 


thou 


to 


darn- 


— na — tion 


add, 


gf 


— v — 


rf * # 


tf 


* 


er 


«T «T 










• 




igr W 


* 





Great er than that. 



■ ■ "' " ~" 




ctf 


.. tf 












ef 


~\ 





The above notation is designed to exemplify exclusively, the 
means of pasing over the compas of Speech ; for tho the style is 
highly pasionative, it may, like the narative, still move upward 
and downward by proximate degrees. If it were here the place 
to represent the proper intonation of this forcible passage^ other 
forms of both the radical and concrete pitch, and of other modes 
of the voice, would be required. This subject will be considered 
hereafter. At the two colon pauses, which in corect reading will 
not bear a full close, I have set the less conspicuous interuption of 
the feeble cadence. 

The foregoing acount of the melody of music and of speech 
represents the forms of the radical and vanish, and their melodial 
progresions widely diferent from each other ; yet, as the several 
keys in music do designate diferent degrees of the scale, and as 
the eject of the key-note does resemble that of the cadence in 
speech, there would seem to be some similarity between them. 



MELODY OF SPEECH. 189 

For since a descent in speech, of three degrees of the radical, with 
a downward vanish from the last, always produces a cadence, and 
afects the ear like the consumation of a key-note in ruusicj it 
folows, that in a voice with a compas of ten diatonic degrees, 
every degree, except the uper two, may be the place of what we 
will here, in suposing the case, call a key-note of speech; and 
therefore, by the conditions of a key-note in music, that such a 
voice might be said to have eight keys. But there would be an 
unavoidable dificulty in this specification of the keys of spoken 
melody. When a musical melody is said to be in a particular key, 
the term designates exactly the position of its key-note. The 
melody of speech cannot properly be refered to a particular key, 
nor has it a fixed place for the key-note ; as it may be terminated 
by a triad of the cadence, at any degree of the scale. The con- 
stituents of the monotone are the only concretes of a melody, to 
which a semblance of the function of key could be assigned, for 
they would each have the same position in the cadencial close. 
When a cadence is made on any of the other phrases, the triad 
which descends to a close from the place of one of its constituents, 
must difer from the triad descending from another. 

Such being the fruitles atempt to designate the key of a single 
phrasej how much more indefinitely must a particular key be 
afirmed of a curent melody composed of a continualy varying 
sucesion of phrases. The true place of key can be afirmed only 
of the first constituent of the cadence itself, because the sucesion 
of its last two, and the place of its closing concrete, with regard 
to the first, are unalterably fixed. Yet even in this case, the 
technical and true meaning of the term key is no way aplicable. 
Looking on the first constituent of the triad, as determining the 
place of key, when aplied to speechj a particular key may be 
apropriated to each degree of the whole compass, except the lower 
two ; and consequently the key, if it can be so caled, of a curent 
melody must perpetualy change. 

The peculiar series of tone and semitone, in the scales of music ; 
the necesity for rules of modulation, to govern the change from 
one series to another ; together with the purposes of Concerting, 
and of Harmonic composition, led to the definite nomenclature 
and arangement of musical keys. A melodial progresion exclu- 



190 THE DIATOKIC 

sively by whole tones, in the speaking scaler and the unacompanied, 
or strictly solo-vocal ofice of speech, do not require the use of 
Key : the designations therefore of its range and form of melody, 
perhaps call for no nearer precision than that of a clasification into 
the uper, midle, and lower pitch of the voice. There is then no 
Key in Speech. 

From this view of the speaking voice it may be perceved, why 
in the notation of its melody I have used only the staff of the 
musical tablature, without reference to its clefs or its signatures. 
Clefs are used in music for the purposes of Concerting j by deter- 
mining with precision the proper places of pitch, for several voices 
or instruments, moving in acompaniment. They are therefore 
useles to the singlenes of speech. Nor does the melody of Nara- 
tive require the System of Key, or the Signature of Flats and 
Sharps, which are necesary in the musical scale, from the position 
of its semitones. The naked lines and spaces of the Staff, de- 
noting the proximate succesion of a tone, aford the proper and 
suficient means for ilustrating the intonation of narative or dia- 
tonic speech. 

The term Modulation is used in music, to signify the transi- 
tions of melody, and of harmonic composition, from one key to 
another. A consideration of the propriety of using this term to 
signify similar changes in the melody of speech, is involved in the 
question, of the propriety of aplying the musical term key to the 
variations of pitch in the speaking voice : and we have seen the 
almost universal diference between the regular system of keys in 
music, and the melodial method of speech. There is then, no 
Modulation in the speaking voice. 

The preceding history of the musical, and of the speaking scale, 
is intended to show the relationships between them : but it apears 
from comparison j there is no systematic analogy to justify the 
transfer of the term key j and that .of modulation, which embraces 
only the practical use of keyj from music to speech. The trans- 
fer was, however, long ago made, and the terms are still continued, 
under a total ignorance of the method of intonation in the speak- 
ing voice. When the truth of the analysis set forth in this section 
shall be admited, it will be obligatory on all those who derive 
pleasure or benefit from acuracy of knowledge, to distinguish by 



MELODY OF SPEECH. 191 

apropriate names, those phenomena which negligence may have 
sufered to pass as identical. If the musical terms, key and modu- 
lation, had not receved an unmeaning admision into the nomen- 
clature of the speaking voice, the description of its melody would 
not, in these last pages, have been complicated with a record of the 
waste work of investigation, which the inquirer is ready to expunge 
and forget, when he has discovered and declared the simple truth. 
And had the hitherto untried subject of melody been releved from 
the blinding consequences of that eroneous nomenclature, the un- 
argued and unbiased history of its changes would have been 
briefly this. The diatonic melody of the speaking voice may be 
led, ascending and descending, thru its whole compas, by a suces- 
ion exclusively of whole tones ; and may from any point except 
the lowest two, be brought to a satisfactory close, by the descent 
of three radicals thru conjoint degrees, with a downward concrete 
on the last. 

If I do not here folow the prefered brevity, nor omit the 
details which show the principles of key and modulation to be 
inaplicable to speech; it is that I anticipated a slow yielding 
acordance, from the habit of an eroneous nomenclature ; and that 
I chose perhaps advantageously, to introduce into the recorded 
investigation, some further or varied remarks on the melody of 
speech. 

In reviewing the subject just closed, I fear the described phe- 
nomena of the voice may not be immediately recognized, nor the 
system of their combination at once definitely comprehended. The 
dificulties in this case may procede not only from the comon mental 
slownes and indocility to newly ofered subjects of knowledge, but 
from the conected system of such subjects, being dimly arrayed 
before the inquiry which was able to discover their insulated truths. 
The art of observation is a mater of aprenticeship and practice ; 
and it is the time, no less than the maner of the work, that con- 
tributes to the enduring excelence of a master. Thots not im- 
presed by the deep sealing of time, nor familiarized by the close 
acquaintance of habit, are feeble or deluding agents in the arduous 
task of comparison and arangement; for it will be found that 
the author who first institutes, or who comprehensively renovates 
a science, rarely adds the clearest economy of system to his work. 



192 VOCALITY OF THE VOICE. 

To look widely, yet closely, is the paradox of the powers of 
Heaven ; and he who spans the broad compass of a science, while 
he touches its divisions and points, is partially raised above the 
bounded prospects and efforts of humanity, by this humble tend- 
ency towards Omniscience. To him is due that surpasing compli- 
ment greatly conceved by the contemplative Greek ; who knowing 
upon what combined and exalted perceptions to place the crown 
of intelectual glory, declared, that he who can Arange and Define 
well, might be fit company for the Gods. 



SECTION IX. 

Of Vocality of the Voice. 

Vocality is one of the five Modes of speech. Its principal 
forms are the Natural, the Falsete, and the Orotund Voices, to- 
gether with those embraced by the comon nomenclature of harsh, 
hoarse, rough, smooth, full, thin, meager, and tunable. It is as 
it were, a general material of speech ; and many of its forms are 
employed for the purpose of expresion. 

Instead of the term, musical, comonly employed under this 
head, I use Tunable, to signify, as formerly stated, a certain agree- 
able sound either in the voice, or on instruments. It means 
vocality alone, and does not, as we employ it, regard the relation- 
ship of pitch or tune. The tunable is only the smooth and the 
clear in sound, distinguished from the roughnes and confusion of 
noise. 

Certain states of mind are instinctively connected with appro- 
priate forms of vocality. The natural voice is acomodated to 
coloquial dialogue, and familiar reading. The orotund, to the 
dignity of the Stage, and the deliberate language of serious ora- 
tory. The falsete, to the emphatic scream of terror and surprise. 
It is not necesary to particularize here, the state of mind, caling 



VOCALITY OF THE VOICE. 193 

respectively for a harsh, full, rude, and courteous vocality. The 
history of their specific apropriation, in the art of reading, may 
be learned from books. 

Regarding these forms of vocality, as distributed among man- 
kind, some voices are restricted to the harsh, or to the meager. 
Few persons have from nature, a pure orotund. Some speak 
altogether in falsete ; and women are apt to use it in careles pro- 
nunciation. Most voices however, may by diligent cultivation be 
improved in vocality. 

This mode of the voice is not to be regarded soley in the simple 
and insulated light, here represented. It is susceptible of com- 
bination with force, time, pitch, and abruptnes. For some kinds 
of vocality must necesarily be united with some of the forms, de- 
grees, and varieties of the other modes. It must be either strong 
or weak ; its time long or short ; its emision abrupt or gradual ; 
and it must be of some definite radical or concrete intonation. 
Certain forms are however, exclusively congenial with particular 
conditions of these other modes. Smoothness will more generaly 
afect the moderate degrees of force. The like congenialities may 
be discovered by the slightest reflection. 

It would be easy to select from authors and from familiar dis- 
course, phrases or sentences requiring respectively, the forms of 
voice here enumerated. But I designed to limit the pages of 
this Work, consistently with the purpose of definite description ; 
aiming to make known the hitherto unrecorded phenomena of 
speech, rather than add to the present exces of compilation. No 
diagram can represent the kinds of vocality ; and every atempt 
to make them plainer than they are under their metaphorical 
designation, would be without succes. 






194 ABRUPTNES OF SPEECH. 

SECTION X. 

Of Abruptnes of Speech. 

On the first publication of this Work, I anticipated objections 
to the clasification of Abruptnes, separately from Force. In the 
fourth edition I added this sectionj to state some of the grounds 
of that arangement. I had not proceded twenty pages, in the 
first desultory record of observations on the voice, before the ful- 
nes of the radical opening was perceved to be a fact of very gen- 
eral occurence in speech. On further observing^ its cause was 
traced to a certain oclusion of the breath ; and this was found to 
be an important and peculiar agent in the production of acent, 
tremor, and sylabication. Finding it could not be very precisely 
classed under the mode of Force, to which it is partialy related, 
I resolved to make it a mode by itself; yet a mode with diferences 
in degree only, not in form ; and unlike every other mode, in hav- 
ing but two positions in speech : one more obvious, at the opening 
of the radical; the other, less remarkable but equaly eficacious, 
in the vocule at the end of the subtonic elements. It is in the 
first case, a maner of enforcing Force, not merely by a higher 
degree of that force, but by another and peculiar mode. Abrupt- 
nes may then be aded to force, to render it more emphatic ; just 
as force may be aded to pasionative intonation, to increase its ex- 
presion; or as any one mode of the voice may be united with 
another, for an aditional or peculiar efect ; making abruptnes and 
force, each with the other, co-eficient but not identical causes. 

The mechanism and action that produce this Abruptnes, consist 
in an oclusion of some vocal passage, and a forcing of the breath 
against that obstruction, till the voice isues. with a suden opening 
of the oclusion. It is a momentary function ; and thereby distin- 
guished from force, which is esentially made on some duration of 
time, vocality, or intonation ; for force to be stroug and momentary, 
must be abrupt. But further, abruptnes may be equaly aplied to 
the initial of vocality, to make its harshnes more shocking ; of the 
orotund, to make the fulnes of its radical more impresive ; and of 



ABKUPTNES OF SPEECH. 195 

pitch, to mark conspicuously its places on the scale. It has been 
shown, on what ocasions it governs the construction of sylables ; 
and how by the vocule it produces a fluent coalescence of elements, 
in continued discourse. We shall learn hereafter, how it efects 
clearnes of articulation ; how, in its moderate degreej for it is here 
plainly contradistinguished from impresive forces it is the principal 
formative cause of the tremulous scale ; and how it is related to 
the Shake of Song. The voice, without this mode, would want 
one of its striking characteristics in expresion, and fail in its im- 
portant uses, for emphasis and fluent articulation : yet the full and 
ready power over this means of energetic speech is posesed by few, 
and is aquired only by atention, and by strenuous efort. When it 
is instinctive with an individual, it is the indication of an excitable 
nervous and muscular system; and altho often conected with a 
quick and efective intelect, it is not necesarily nor always a sign 
of it. The explosive bark of the dog, and the short, abrupt, and 
repeated sylable-like put of the struting turkey, are as much a 
sign of mere animal anger, in one case, and of what seems to be 
instinctive vanity, in the other; as a like abruptnes would be, of 
some of the vulgar pasions of the ignorant and thotles part of 
mankind. I say, of a sub-animal unreflective vanity, for self- 
enjoyed vanity is exclusively a human vice. 

To this explosion of the voice, which as a peculiar means of 
articulation and expresion, has never been systematicaly recognized j 
or has receved only a transient and heedles noticej we have ocasion 
to make continual reference in the course of this Work. Its most 
remarkable employment will hereafter be shown in the full and 
suden opening of the radical movement. This opening abruptnes, 
or as we call it, Radical stress, will be considered hereafter under 
the Mode of Force ; not as properly one of its forms, but merely 
to conect it with two of the other streses, which, tho wanting 
abruptnes, are yet justly clased with that forceful mode. 






196 THE TIME OF THE VOICE. 

SECTION XL 

Of the Time of the Voice. 

Two of the cherished relationships of man to man are selfishnes 
and emulation. Acustomed therefore to regard himself in the 
light of personal importance, and of relative position, he is prone 
to look for consequence and rank in natural things. But Nature 
afects neither egotism nor precedence. When the five modes of 
the voice are brot before us, we have that aristocratic bias in human 
curiosity, to discover which is the most important. Yet all are 
esential and equal in the self-satisfied, and unjealous purposes of 
Creation ; where alone, the Republican pretension does, and until 
man shall be as wise, and modest, and unenvious as Naturej ever 
can present itself. Considering vocality, or its occult Substratum, 
as notional metaphysicians would call it, to be the material of the 
voice, we see the necesity of its universality : and we shall find 
that Time, the mode we are now about to consider, is an equaly 
pervading constituent of speech. 

The degrees in duration or in the time of the voice, are repre- 
sented indefinitely, by the terms, long, short, quick, and slow ; and 
are variously used, both for simple narative, and for expresion. 

To be precise^ let long and short designate the time of sylables 
relatively to each other ; quick and slow, the uterance of any series 
or agregate of words. A sylable has a long or short time, or Quan- 
tity, as it is called in this case ; a phrase, an entire sentence, or a 
continued curent of discourse is pronounced in quick or slow time. 
The ocasions for employing these last divisions of time are well 
known. The state of dignity, deliberation, doubt, and grief afect 
a slow time ; that of gayety, anger, and eager argument, together 
with parenthetic phrases, asume the quick time in uterance. 

It is necesary however, to be more particular on the time of 
individual sylables, comparatively considered ; and to regard them 
otherwise than under their ordinary prosodial distinctions. 

The time of sylables varies from the shortest uterable, to their 
utmost prolongation in oratorical expresion. To reduce this in- 



THE TIME OF THE VOICE. 197 

definite view to available divisions, for future reference, we will 
arange sylables under three clases. Let the First embrace those 
restricted to the shortest quantity : the Second, those limited to a 
quantity somewhat greater than that of the first : the Third, those 
of a quantity, varying from the shortest, to even an indefinite 
prolongation. 

To the First class belong many of those sylables terminated by 
an abrupt element ; and containing a tonic, or an aditional sub- 
tonic, or the further adition of an atonic, such as at, ap, eh, hap-les, 
pit- fall, ae-cep-tance. It is not the short quantity alone of a sylable 
that gives the character to this class ; for many, with the construc- 
tion of the third may be, and sometimes are in comon usage, equaly 
short. Those now under consideration have this esential charac- 
teristic;; they cannot be prolonged, without deforming pronunciation. 
The word cdnvict, when acented on the first sylable as a noun, and 
on the last as a verb has, in simple uterance, a certain quantity 
alotted to the acented sylable. If, for the purpose of rhetorical 
expresion on the noun, the time of the first is indefinitely pro- 
longed, the identical character of the word still remains, notwith- 
standing that extension. With a similar time on the last sylable 
of the verb, to convict, its drawling pronunciation is remarkable. 
The sylables asigned to this first class, not admiting an alteration 
in quantity, may be caled Immutable. I shall hereafter show 
their relations to the movements of pitch, and to the functions of 
acent and emphasis. 

To the Second class belong most of those sylables terminated 
by an abrupt element, and containing one or more subtonics or 
atonies, with a short tonic. The subtonic in this case alows an 
aditional time, greater than that of sylables in the preceding class ; 
still the abrupt element and the short tonic limit even this mod- 
erate extension. Of this class are yet, what, Up, gratitude, des- 
truc-tion. In these instances the sylables are longer than those 
of the imutable class ; and for the purpose of expresion, the sub- 
tonics may be slightly extended beyond their length, in simple 
uterance. With undue prolongation, however, they have the like 
ofensive drawl and deformity perceved in the forced extension of 
the imutable class. As those included under the present head admit 
of a slight change in quantity, they may be called Mutable sylables. 



198 THE TIME OF THE VOICE. 

To the Third class belong all those sylables terminated by a 
tonic element, or a subtonic, except b, d, and g. Of this kind are 
go, thee, for, day, man, de-lay, he-guile, ex-treme, care-less, and 
me-volve. If the speaker can give full audibility to the esential 
gutural murmur of the subtonics, b, d, and g, their position, at 
the end of a sylable, alows a limited prolongation, without ob- 
scuring the character of the sylable : as in the words deed, plague, 
babe, res-tored. But the efect in these cases, is by no means to be 
compared with that of an extension of time upon other subtonics, 
and on tonics. In the above pure examples of this class, the 
quantity may be prolonged, without the disagreeable efect, pro- 
duced by an increase of time, under the preceding clases. It is 
the peculiar character of these sylables, that they preserve their 
identical sylabic sound, under every degree of prolongation ; 
whereas the imutable and mutable, in some cases can scarcely be 
recognized when forcibly extended. From their alowable variety, 
the sylables of this class may be said to have an indefinite quantity ; 
and may be called Indefinite sylables. They furnish important 
means for the expresion of speech ; some of its most pasionative 
forms, being made on sylables, with this power of indefinite pro- 
longation. 

The Reader is to receve the foregoing clasification, as one 
adapted to our view of the expresive uses of time. The investi- 
gation of the causes of expresion, soon showed the importance of 
other distinctions of quantity, than those of long and short ; which, 
after a thousand years and more, of pretending observation, we 
continue to transcribe from the meager record of Greek and Latin 
prosody. The phenomena of expresion first directed the division 
here made ; and however it may be otherwise aplied, it will be 
necesary for the ready explanation of future parts of this essay. 
Whatever may be thot of its suficiency, I must still belevej 
it is high-time for the superanuated sages of clasical literature, 
to turn-aside the old grammatical ear, in their prosodial researches ; 
and try if some modern vocal analysis, may not efect upon them, 
one of those renovations of sense, which it is said, have now and 
then resuscitated the torpid perceptions of extreme longevity. 

The power of giving indefinite prolongation to sylables, is not 
comonly posesed by speakers. It is truej the daily use of the 



THE TIME OF THE VOICE. 199 

voice frequently calls for extended quantity ; but daily discourse 
is often simple narative, or if directed by an excited state of 
mind, is that of active argument, or of contending interests, which 
employ for the most part, the short time of sylables and the rapid 
course of uterance. Still, the asertion that a long quantity is not 
easily practicable, may seem to be questionable : since persons who 
sing can readily extend their time to an indefinite length ; and all 
uter cries in the same maner. But these voices are generaly made 
on protracted notes ; the dificulty to which we here alude, is in 
the execution of the equable concrete of speech. We have shown 
that diferent forms of the radical and vanish are respectively em- 
ployed in speech, and song. Without atention to the use of these 
forms, it is not always easy to restrict them to their apropriate 
places. A reader who has not by practice, a facility in executing 
the long quantities of speech, will be liable, in extending his syla- 
bles, to fall into the protracted radical or protracted vanish of 
song. On the other hand, when persons without a musical ear and 
a singing- voice, imperfectly remember and endeavor to imitate, the 
melodial succesions of song, they are apt to change many of its 
notes, into the equable concrete of speech. Prolonged cries, and 
interjections which are only more moderate cries, are always made 
either by the protracted notes of song, or by movements over the 
wider intervals and their waves ; and tho these intervals and waves 
are both proper to speech, yet the prolonged cry and interjection 
are the forced efect of ocasional pasion ; and this not often ocurring 
in ordinary uterance, the cause is not continued, and the vocal 
practice not confirmed. 

The foregoing notice of the exclusion of the peculiar intonations 
of song from speech, furnishes one cause why persons of great 
accomplishment as singers, are nevertheles indiferent readers or 
comonplace actors. Other causes will hereafter be asigned for the 
general want of interchangeable facility in the exercise of the arts 
of song, and speech. That arising from the different structures 
of the radical and vanish in the two cases, is not the least influen- 
tial. The endowed singer may have at comand all the means of 
expresion, employed in song : but these means, as we shall learn, 
are peculiar to song, and are not transferable to speech ; and while 
he is able to clothe every feeling of the Composer, with the melo- 



200 THE TIME OF THE VOICE. 

dious sucesion of his long-drawn notes, his disqualified ateinpts at 
speaking intonation, strip off or tear to pieces, every expresion, to 
be spread by the equable concrete, over the language of the Poet. 

To return from this acount of diferent forms of the concrete, to 
the consideration of the uses of its varied quantity. An immu- 
table, mutable, and indefinite time, has each its apropriate manner 
of fulfiling the purposes of expresion. It is however, upon in- 
definite sylables that the most graceful and dignified effect of into- 
nation is acomplished ; as we shall learn in future parts of this 
essay. Readers who are ignorant of the principles of quantity, 
do yet perceve the necesity of a deliberate movement, for a grave 
and admirative expresion. They therefore, endeavor to suply the 
want of a long sylabic time, by slight pauses after words, and even 
between sylables. Propriety and taste however, alow here no 
compensation : they require most of the prolonged time in digni- 
fied uterance, to be spent on the sylable itself, and reject the other 
means, as ofensive monotony or afectation. 

Eminent instances of the esential importance of long quantity 
may be shown, by considering the sylabic construction of sentences 
with reference to expression: for as the vocal signs of certain 
states of mind require the prolonged time of indefinite sylablesj it 
may hapen that such states are to be expresed on the limited dura- 
tion of a mutable, or the mere moment of an imutable time. This 
may be ilustrated by a pasage from the fourth book of Paradise 
Lost, where Satan is brought before Gabriel. In the dialogue 
between them, one of the replications of Satan is as folows. 

Not that I less 'endure,' or shrink from pain, 
In-sult-mg angel ! well thou know'st I stood 
Thy Jierc-est, when in batle to thy aid, 
The blasting volied thunder made all speed, 
And seconded thy else not dread-ed spear. 
But still thy words at random, as before, 
Argue thy inexperience what behoves 
From hard assays and ill succeses past 
A faithful leader, not to hazard 'all' 
Thru ways of danger by himself untried: 
1 1,' therefore, ' I' ' alone' first undertook 
To wing the desolate abys, and spy 
This new created world, whereof in Hell 
Fame is not silent, here in hope to find 



THE TIME OF THE VOICE. 201 

Beter abode, and my aflicted powers 

To setle here on earth, or in mid air ; 

Tho for posession put to try once more 

What thou and thy gay legions ' dare ' against : 

Whose easier busines were to ' serve ' their ' Lord ' 

High up in Heaven, with songs to hymn his throne, 

And practis'd distances to ' cringe,' not fight. 

The language of this extract variously embraces argument, 
narative, and pasion. We here refer to the last. I have marked 
in italics, some of the sylables representing that state, but which 
are incapable of prolongation. The sylables, less, shrink, suit, 
fierce, else, and dread, belong to our class of mutables, yet they 
cannot be extended, without making in the several cases, the pro- 
longed radical on I, e, and r; and this would change pronunciation 
to a drawl. We supose less, taken with endure, to embrace the 
mental conditions of sufering and resignation^ shrink, those of 
taunt and exultationj suit, those of complaint, pride and reproachj 
fierce, that of scornful defiance^ else, a contingency of self-confi- 
dence and contemptj and dread, when interpreted by the preceding 
exceptive, else, a similar contingency of self-relying courage. The 
expresion of all these states, as we shall learn hereafter, calls for 
a prolonged quantity, on the wider intervals of pitch, and on the 
wave ; which the shortnes of the elemental sounds, in the above 
emphatic sylables, does not alow. The emphasis of stress might 
indeed be laid upon them, but this would not expres their pur- 
pose. The last line however, afords a more marked ilustration of 
the subject before us : for of the words not fight, the former is only 
mutable; and the latter being strictly imutable, they cannot be 
extended, without a disagreeable departure from corect pronuncia- 
tion. This phrase representing a mental state of strong contempt 
and exultation, its expresive intonation should be made upon in- 
definite sylables. A reader of delicate perception can never satisfy 
his ear on these restricted quantities. I have thruout the extract, 
marked with inverted commas, a few words, embracing states of 
mind that call for wide intervals on an extended time ; and these 
words by their power of indefinite prolongation alow the required 
expresion. 

I add here another exemplification of this subject, from the gen- 
eric, brief, and magnificent description of Satan's Imperial Presence 
U 



202 THE TIME OF THE VOICE. 

in Pandemonium, at the opening of the second book of Paradise 
Lost 

High on a throne of royal state, which far 
Outshone the wealth of Ormus and of Ind, 
Or, where the gorgeous East with richest hand 
Showers on her Kings barbaric pearl and gold, 
Satan exalted sat. 

In these lines, Milton, with a just instinct of versification, has 
employed long quantities, in hapy adaptation to the admirative 
dignity of the description. 

I use- here, rather remarkably, the term, instinct of versification, 
not in oversight of the inteligence with which this Extraordinary 
Man executed every high design and every tittle of his work ; but 
because it is clearly seen he did not intend to construct the measure 
of his poem by the rules of quantity alone. The development of 
the full resources of an acentual versification by Milton, was a 
new and absorbing labor. Had this advance-step preceded him, 
the originality and restles enterprise of his intelect, would most 
probably have aded to the many available principles of Greek and 
Roman composition, so hapily transfered to his own language^ the 
acomplishment of the suposed imposibility of adopting the rules 
of their prosody. In most of the words of the above example, 
where the majesty of his thot so secured the homage of quantity, 
some of the sylables sudenly arest the perception of extended 
movement and deliberate dignity, produced by the indefinite time 
of those words. The sylables, state, rich, and sat, are too short 
for the otherwise good iambic temporal measure : and the word 
barbaric occasions some iregular contrariety in the impresions of 
quantity and acent. In the simple pronunciation of this word, 
the first sylable, bar, is somewhat longer than the second, which 
will not, in this case, bear unusual extension. And as the longer 
sylable is here in the place of the weak sylable of iambic acent, 
the impresivenes of exceding length reverses the sucesion of the 
prevailing measure. Nor does the simple meaning of the epi- 
thet barbaric, alow a suficient degree of acentual stres on the 
second sylable, to overrule the impresivenes of greater length in 
the first. If the Reader, excusing the rhetorical change, will 
substitute the adjective orient, for barbaric, he will perceve by 



THE TIME OF THE VOICE. 203 

comparison, the diference between the acentual and the temporal 
impresion. 

Showers on | her kings | her or | ient pearl | and gold. 

Whether the first and the fourth section of this line are con- 
sidered respectively in order, a trochee and an iambus, as here 
marked, or as a dactyl and an anapest, as they may be read, by 
license in our iambic measurej the admisible prolongation of the 
indefinite sylable or-e, produces an admirative dignity of uterance 
that cannot be efected on the short time of the acented sylable of 
barbaric. And it may be aded further, that this line does fulfil 
the conditions of poetic quantity, as completely as any line ever 
constructed with Greek or Roman words.* 

To a bad reader, nearly all sentences are alike, however im- 
properly constructed for vocal expression. He who looks abroad 
for excelence, thru all the ways of the voice, must often find the 
tendencies and demands of his uterance restricted, by the unyield- 
ing character of an imutable phraseology. A limited discernment, 
and the comon uses of quantity often sufice to set forth the thots 
of an author ; but an admirative or a pasionative expresion will 
in many cases be imperfect, or lost, if tried on the imutable time of 
sylables. A reader who can asume the mental state of the poet, will 
not be able to give the prompted expresion to part of the last line 
of the folowing example. It is taken from Gabriel's answer to 
Satan's apology for his flight from Hell, just quoted, and is a coment 
on the title of faithful leader, vaunted by Satan. 

* If the Header would know how certain words may be pronounced as a 
foot or prosodial section, either of two or of three sylables, let him recur to 
our principles of sylabication. The word showers is one sylable, when the « 
is omitted ; the dipthongal tonic ou, vanishing directly into the subtonic r, as 
in showrs. If the sound of e is retained, that element requires its radical and 
vanish, and the word becomes thereby of two sylables, as in show-ers. The 
trisylable orient, is reduced to a disylable, by withholding a radical from the 
sound represented by i, and thereby droping that sound as a distinct sylable. 
In the trisylable, i represents the sound of ee-1, and ee-l by readily changing 
into the subtonic y-e, coalesces with the suceding tonic e-nd ; thus y taking 
the place of ee-1, joins itself to the subtonic n, to form the contracted sylable 
yent. The word orient, in corect pronunciation, is a true dactyl in quantity. 
I have set it as an iambus, not intending to defend the propriety of the change, 
but to form thereby, a regular iambic line, and to ilustrate one of the princi- 
ples of English pronunciation. 



204 THE TIME OF THE VOICE. 

O name, 
O sacred name of faithfulnes profan'd f 
Faithful to whom ? to thy rebelious crew ? 
Army of Fiends,^ body to Jit head. 

The six sylables of this last phrase are short, and all the em- 
phatic ones are imutable. They contain a degree of admiration 
at the well marked felowship, between a ringleader and his crew, 
mingled with scorn at the wicked faithfulnes of the rebelious out- 
cast : and these states of mind, we shall learn hereafter, cannot be 
eminently shown on the abrupt shortnes of the sylabic time here 
employed. With an acomplished speaker, the management of 
this phrase would resemble the efforts of a musician of feeling and 
skill, on a limited instrument ; and the diferent efect of his voice, 
on the above short sylables, and on indefinite quantities embracing 
the same states, would be like that of the inexpresive <chatering 
of the harp or piano-forte, compared with the gliding resources 
and sway ful concrete of intonation, from an Andante movement 
on the violoncelo. The harsh and unyielding character of the 
short sylables in the above example, would be striking to a good 
reader, by its contrast with the preceding phraseology ; in which, 
the two interjectives, the words name, profaned, whom, thy, crew, 
army, fiends, and perhaps faith/Wj being all of indefinite time, 
and some of them emphaticj aford the most ample means, for a 
true and elegant intonation of the admirative and partly pasion- 
ative states of mind they convey. 

Although abrupt and atonic elements produce many instances 
of short sylabic construction, that do not admit the extended forms 
of intonated expresionj yet most sentences contain the amount of 
prolongable sylables, which the state of mind may require. For 
it is not necesary, that every word should bear the full expresion, 
conveyed by an extended intonation. One or two emphatic long- 
quantities, assisted by an accordant, even if faint intonation, on 
the short and unemphatic sylables j in a maner to be described 
hereafterj will suficiently convey the thot and pasion embraced by 
the sentence. The indefinite sylable par in the folowing line has 
a variable quantity, which, without impropriety, may be doubled 
or more, in expresive uterance; and the same may be said of 
bleed. 



THE TIME OF THE VOICE. 205 

Pardon me thou bleeding piece of earth, 

That I am meek and gentle with these hutchers. 

The circumstances of the scene in Julius Coesar, from which 
this is taken, inform us that Mark Antony's mental states, ex- 
presed in the first line, are those of love, grief, and contrition ; 
his revenge does not apear until the second. The former, it will 
be shown hereafter, call particularly for an extension of sylabic 
time ; and we here regard the words pardon and bleeding as em- 
phatic, since they respectively picture the special objeet of the 
supliant, and the disastrous asasination, that with self-reproach, he 
had delayed to punish. The acented sylables of these words freely 
receve the temporal prolongation; and the employment of the 
required expresion on their indefinite quantity, together with the 
asistance of a slight prolongation on the short and unaccented 
sylables, directs the stream of that expresion every where thruout 
the line. 

In the preceding ilustrations, the Reader may now perceve some 
ground for our ara/fgernenit of sylables, acording to their time, and 
in reference to the subject of expresive intonation ; and may there- 
upon, admit the usefulnes of its nomenclature, for the purposes of 
criticism and instruction. Yet there is another view to be taken 
of the efects of sylabic quantity. From the limited resources, 
and the necesarily generic character of language, the same word 
may in diferent sentences have a variation, so to speak, in its 
thotive meaning. It is still more comon to find the same word 
with a diferent reverent! ve or pasionative expresion, in its change- 
able combinations with other words. Some states of mind being 
only properly represented by a short and abrupt uterance; it 
folows that the shortnes of a word or sylable, which on one oca- 
sion cannot denote the state of mind that requires a prolonged 
intonationj may on another, fulfil the purpose of forceful expres- 
ion with its imutable quantity. It was shown in a former ex- 
ample, that the word fight was incapable of the extension, there 
necesary for the full display of scorn. When Hamlet in the 
■ violent scene with Laertes saysj 

Why, I will fight with him upon this theme, 
Until my eyelids will no longer wagj 



206 THE TIME OF THE VOICE. 

the quick time of the whole sentence, is generically inclusive of the 
short time of its constituent sylables ; and the imutable quantity 
of the word fight, admiting of abruptnes and force, may fuly 
denote the resolute rage of the Prince. 

The interjection is the only Part of Speech, employed exclu- 
sively for expresion. Those comon to all languages, consist of 
tonics, that freely admit of indefinite prolongation. Interjections 
are the instincts of the animal voice ; and universaly have an ex- 
tendible quantity required for pasionative expresion. Other parts 
of speech are sometimes the picture of thot, and sometimes of 
pasion ; and acomodated to this, there is a diference in the time of 
sylables. Had words been invented as signs of interjective ex- 
presion only, most of them would have been made with an ex- 
tended voice. Yet as the tonic elements may be utered either as 
long or as short quantities, and the abrupt and atonic, in certain 
positions, inconveniently produce a short quantity, it might be 
infered, that a language consisting entirely of tonic sounds, man- 
ageable both for longer and for shorter time, would beter fulfil all 
the purposes of speech, than a language containing in part, ele- 
ments of imutable quantity. But some states of mind are well 
represented by a short quantity, and a suden isue of voice ; and 
the abrupt elements are in certain positions, the best contrived 
means for producing that sudennes with the greatest variety and 
force.* And further, the atonies, with the exception of k, p, and 
t, tho not properly explosive, yet arest the concrete progres of vo- 
cality, and alow a suceding tonic readily to take on the explosive 
opening. A language made up of sounds, having the varied 
character of our tonic, subtonic, atonic, and abrupt elements, is 
therefore well accomodated to the system of those expresive signs, 
ordained thruout all vocal creation. f 

* Those who delight in searching for undiscoverable things, may institute 
an inquiry^ whether the abrupt elements derive their existence in speech, 
from the suden uterance which anger and other animal pasions instinctively 
asumed, at that nonenity of date, the origin of language. The only origin 
of language we know, is that of a new term, invented for a new thot, or for 
an unamed physical fact. 

f This remark will scarcely be aceptable, to those who have always thotj 
the greater the proportion of vowels to other elements, the greater the har- 
mony, as it is caled, of a language. And hence the sneer of Grecian scholar- 



THE TIME OF THE VOICE. 207 

The employment of prolonged time, in the emphatic places of 
discourse, with a view to expresive intonation, seems never to have 
been thot of by ordinary writers ; and has been so far overlooked 
in the schools, that it has never receved formal notice either in 
Rhetoric or Elocution. Dramatists, to whose taste and duty this re- 
mark is especialy applicable, frequently neglect that proper adapta- 
tion of time and acent, which would aford an Actor the means of 
ading the finishing touches of his voice, to the vivid and forcible 
picture of thot and pasion: for a rythmic style is more easily 
read and more forcibly declaimed than a loose and unjointed con- 
struction. 

The judicious use of the variations of quantity is the very life 
of elocution, and the right hand of dignity in the measure of poetry 
and prose. 

The human ear has conizance of two kinds of Proportion in 
the sucesions of sound : one embracing the relationship of its 
forces ; the other of its duration. 

The First consists in the perception of unequal forces alternately 
sucesive. Of this we have many species, derived from the order 
of sucesion, or the number of the varied impulses ; as exhibited 
in the folowing ilustration : where the first species shows a heavy 
impulse folowed by a lighter one ; the second, one heavy folowed 

ship at our barbarian cacophony ; if I may with a repugnant ear, thus lay an 
example of classical harmony on an English page. A language that would 
give to a, e, i, o, w, oi, and ow, an over-share of speech, would be very monoto- 
nous, and might perhaps remind us of its vowel-roots among the sub-animals : 
but in sound alone, it would interupt fluency by an increase of hiatus, and be 
far from the harmonious. The term harmony, taken from other arts, has not 
a very descriptive meaning, when aplied to language. Architecture, Music, 
Painting, and the Landscape, require, respectively, a unity in their varied 
distribution of sound, color, form, and surface, and a variety in the unitizing 
power of contrast, to make up the engaging efects of their harmony: and 
each has its peculiar maner, if I may so speak, of Preparing, and Striking, and 
Eesolving its discords. What the literary critic calls harmony of language, 
is in reality a perception, not of consonant, but of different, impressions on 
the ear, and consists in the varied and agreeable sucesions and contrasts, 
of the forms of Force, Vocality and Time, with the intersections of pause ; 
shown in English Composition, by a due aportionment of tonic, subtonic, 
and atonic elements, to mutable, imutable, and indefinite syl.ables, under the 
name of Bythmus. 



208 THE TIME OF THE VOICE. 

by two lighter ; the third and fourth being respectively the reversed 
order of the other two. 



#© @© @© \ @®® ®^© ) ©# ©# f ©©# ©&© 

The Second kind of proportion consists in the different duration 
of two or more sounds. Of these the species are formed upon the 
relations of long and short, and from the direct or reverse order of 
their diferences, ilustrated in the folowing diagram ; where the first 
section is meant to represent a sound of given length, suceded by 
one of half or leser fraction of its time ; the second shows a given 
length folowed by two of shorter time ; the third and fourth being 
respectively the reverse in order, of the times of the first and second. 



The Eeader can audibly ilustrate these schemes, by tonic sounds 
respectively, of different force, and duration. 

We can at present, reach no further in the investigation of this 
subject, than to knowj the measurement of these proportions is an 
agreeable exercise of the cultivated ear : and that we are more 
pleased with varied percusions, and varied durations of any me- 
chanical sounds, of these or other symetrical arangements, than 
with one unvaried order of percussions and durations, except 
regular pauses are interposed between any given order of them ; 
as in the following diagram : where the space of a pause is repre- 
sented between a series of two, and of three similar sounds. 



©© oe i ®*e ®qq ®## 

As the voice has the power of this momentary percusion, and 
sylables have diferent degrees of duration, both of the above pro- 
portional forms of force and time may be aplied to speech. The 
perception of the former is called Accentj that of the later, Quan- 



THE TIME OF THE VOICE. 209 

tity. To one who has equaly exercised his ear in these two kinds 
of measurement, the alternation of quantity is by far the most agree- 
able. For in the case of accent, no momentary sound or ' ictus ' 
can be tunable; whereas a prolonged quantity is the esential of 
this agreeable tune. If then the perception of equal momentary 
acents, with pauses between the given agregates, or of unequal 
momentary acents, alternately continued, is agreeable, the percep- 
tion of a similar order of difering tunable quantities must be more 
so. Since the acentual function may be conjoined with quantity, 
by giving the abrupt ictus to the beginning of a prolonged sy lable ; 
and pauses may be interposed between agregates that make up the 
sucesion of quantity. 

The above view regards only the acentual stress, or the time of 
sound, considered in itself. When quantity carries the intonation 
of the concrete, and thus becomes susceptible of vocal expresion, 
its claims over acent are incalculable. 

The preceding remarks refer especialy to the measure of verse : 
and a principal cause of the diference between a good and a bad 
reader therein, lies in a varied ability to attain an efective and 
elegant comand over acent and quantity. 

The efect upon the ear, and the silent perception in the mind, 
of an agreeable variety in the sucesions of force and time, together 
with the division by pause, both in prose and verse, is caled the 
Bythmus of Speech. 

It may be suposed, I alude to the Latin and Greek languages, 
when speaking of the quantity of verse. Noj it is to the English 
language, and to the partial tho unsot use of quantity, at present 
prevailing in its measure : and I wish further to intimate a posi- 
bility of the future construction of its rythmus, on the sole basis 
of quantity^ if the scholastic formalists of literature can be made 
to belevej the subject of ancient prosody has, for ages past, been 
exhausted ; that the labors of wrangling compilation are inferior 
to the works of inventive improvement ; and that the investiga- 
tion of their own respective languages may asure to them the first 
births of originality^ and to their productions, if ambitious of 
such things, the consequent undivided heritage of fame. 

About the time we are tat to measure the sylables of Homer 
and Virgil, by the relations of long and short, we are told j our 



210 THE TIME OF THE VOICE. 

own tongue does not admit the rythmus of quantity ; and that the 
prosody of the English as well as of other modern languages, is 
restricted to the use of the alternately strong and weak percusive 
acent. For the sake of the general principle in some important 
maters, we do well, perhaps, in the present make-shift state of 
the human mind, to rely implicitly, for a time, on the authority 
of our teachers ; but many find cause to regret the necesity of this 
confidence in particular instances. From the finely governed and 
varied quantities of Mrs. Siddons, I first learned, by beautiful and 
impresive demonstration, that the English language poseses sim- 
ilar, if not equal resources, with the Greek and the Latin, in this 
department of the luxury of speech : and I found myself indebted 
to the Stage, for the opening of a source of poetical and oratorical 
pleasure, which the more virtuous pretences, and the hack-instruc- 
tion of a Colege, either knew not or disregarded. While listening 
to the intonations of this surpasing Actress, I first felt a want of 
that elementary knowledge which would have enabled me to trace 
the ways of all her excelence. I could not however, avoid learn- 
ing from her instinctive example, what the apointed elders over 
my education should have tat me ; that one of the most important 
means of expresive intonation, both in poetry and prose, consists 
in the extended time of sylabic utterance.* 

I do not here mean to sayj the quantity of English sylables has 
not been recognized by prosodians ; or its beauty not been per- 
ceved by a good ear, wherever it has been well used by design, or 
acidentaly, in English versification, and in the well adjusted sylabic 
arangement of prose. I mean to convey a regret that its powers 
have been undervalued; that its elegant and dignified rythmic 
combination with acent and pause, have been overlooked in the 

* I had the good fortune to hear this acomplished Actres, both in Edin- 
burgh and London, while pursuing my medical studies, from eighteen hun- 
dred and nine, till eighteen hundred and eleven. On the first publication of 
this "Work, in eighteen hundred and twenty-seven, it came into my mindj 
perhaps scarcely warranted, even by my admiration both here, and subse- 
quently expresedj to send her a Copy : not however without suficient warn- 
ing, from some floating anticipation, that the book itself would be regarded 
by that peculiar Actor-ism of Actors, as an unwelcome, if not a presumptuous 
ofering on the Theatric Altar of Anti-docility and Self-sufficient 'Genius.' 
I think it was then, and now after seven and twenty years, when I add this 
note, I more than think it is still so regarded. 



THE TIME OF THE VOICE. 211 

modern afectation of the wnfluent plainess of a coloquial style; 
and that it has been excluded from its place in elementary rhetor- 
ical instruction ; thereby depriving the ear of one of its highest 
prerogatives of perception, in poetry and speech. 

We may very properly askj whether a clasical scholar is gravely 
in earnest, or only vain of a colege-livery, in declaring his enjoy- 
ment of Greek and Latin temporal rythums, while ignorant of 
similar resources of neglected quantity in his own language. The 
Greeks and the Latins have left us their gramar, their writen words, 
sylables, and elements ; but our uncertainty of the true voice of 
these elements both individually and combined, has given rise, 
among modern scholars, to a difference in the pronunciation of 
them. Asuming the English manerj the subject of Greek and 
Latin prosody may be resolved into its simple principles, and 
briefly described. Long sylables, or their temporal efects, are 
made in two ways : First, by the absolute duration of sylables, 
constituted like those we called indefinite : Second, by the short 
time of those we called imutable and mutable, folowed by a pause ; 
the time of pronunciation aded to the time of the pause, being 
equal to that of a long sylable. Short sylables are made by the 
short-timed pronunciation ,of indefinite sylables ; or by imutable 
ones ; and there is nothing in this acount of Ancient quantity, not 
true of the English language. 

And further, not only are these general principles of sylabic 
construction the same in Greek, Latin, and English, but the very 
sylables themselves are comon to these three languages ; nay, it 
may be said, to all languages. For we must bear in mindj there 
is in all languages, severaly about the same number, both of vowels 
and consonants ; that most of these elements themselves are comon 
to all ; and that universaly, no sylable ever includes more than 
one tonic, or vowel. The average number of audible consonants 
in every sylable being about three to one vowel, the law of permu- 
tation in this case would not furnish sylables enough to alow a 
diferent set, respectively to all the languages of past and present 
time : and it apears on comparison, not suficient to make a dis- 
coverable diference even between two. If the Reader will try 
every line of Homer, and Horace, he will find scarcely a sylable 
that does not form the whole, or part of some word in his own 



212 THE TIME OF THE VOICE. 

tongue ; both as regards the elemental sounds, and the most exact 
coincidence of quantity. But it is on sylables alone, the rules of 
quantity are founded in every language. When therefore we deny 
that the English tongue admits of the temporal measure, we must 
come to the absurd conclusion, that identical sounds have in Greek 
type the most finished fitnes for sylabic quantity, and in English 
have none at all.* 

These remarks refer principaly to the time of sylables separately 
considered. There may be some diferences in the several words 
of these languages, that render it easier to construct a rythmus of 
quantity in one than in another : we however, here speak of the 
admision of the system of quantity into English, and not of the 
comparative ease of its execution when adopted. There may be 
some facilities in the Greek for certain kinds of measure, arising 
out of the greater length of the generality of words in this lan- 
guage. The Greek may possess an advantage over the English in 
some of the purposes of vocal expresion and poetic quantity, by 
having a greater number of indefinite sylables, and by making 
less use of the abrupt elements, in positions that produce an 
imutable time. Greek sylables have, in general, fewer letters than 
English ; and they more frequently en,d with a tonic element. 

* That this may not be regarded as an exagerated conclusion, I add, from 
among a thousand authorities that might be quoted for the same purpose, the 
folowing substantial support to it. In the chapter on versification, in an 
English translation of Baron Bielfeld's 'Elements of Universal Eruditionj' 
after many remarks on the subject of ancient quantity and modern accent, 
which in nowise qualify the folowing extraordinary asertion, the author saysj 
' Properly speaking, there are not, therefore, in modern languages, any sensible 
distinctions of long and short sylables, but many that are to be lightly pased 
over, and others on which a strong acent, or inflection of the voice, is to be 
placed.' This was writen towards the close of the last century, by the ' Pre- 
ceptor to a European Prince, and the Chancelor of all the Universities in the 
Prussian dominions.' Even before his time, some prosodians were not without 
the sense of hearing; and tho the existence of long and short sylables in 
modern languages has, since the epoch of his deep deafnes, been generaly 
admited, yet it is still held to be imposible to make agreeable measure out of 
their relations. 

In candor, it should be statedj the Baron was a compiler ; but such writers 
generaly represent curent opinions, and they always know more of indexes, 
popular books, and other men's notions, than is either known or coveted by 
those who ' observe, and read, and think, for themselves.' 



THE TIME OF THE VOICE. 213 

The employment of quantity in English prose composition, 
sometimes acidentaly produces the regular measure of Greek and 
Latin lines. If these ocasional passages of temporal rythmus are 
well accomodated to the i genius y of the English language, it does 
not apear, why the studied contrivance of a poet might not use 
those existing quantities, in the continued course of verse. The 
folowing sentence has not the acentual form of any of our estab- 
lished meters, and is therefore, in its rythmus, purely English 
prose: Rome, in her downfall, blazoned the fame of barbarian 
conquests. This sentence, independently of its impresive tonic 
sounds, with stres and time upon them, derives its character, from 
the relative position of its long and short quantities; which is 
exactly that of a Latin and of a Greek hexameter line, here shown 
by comparison. 

Dactyl Spondee Dactyl Dactyl Dactyl Spondee. 

E\> ds-s | as £u)<7 | T7)pt a | p-qport | Tztxpoq o | taroq. 

Si nihil | ex tant | a supe | ris placet | urbe re | llnqui. 

Rome in her | downfall | blazon'd the | fame of bar | barlan | conquests. 

When this last sentence is read with its proper pauses, and with 
deliberate pronunciation, it coresponds in measure with the long 
and short times of the superscribed Latin and the Greek. Let us 
not however think it strange, for anticipation takes off the edge 
of surprisej if a clasic scholar should deny the identity of its tem- 
poral impresion, with that of the colated lines. We are so little 
acustomed to regard English sylables in reference to their quantity, 
that it is dificult at first, to make it even a subject of perception. 
For he who, acording to vulgar persuasion belevesj there is an 
openes of the senses to first physical impresions, greater than that 
of the mind to new subjects of thot, plainly indicates that he has 
overlooked the ways and powers of both the senses and the mind ; 
the senses having equaly their ignorance, obstinacy, and prejudice; 
equaly perceving what is familiar, and for a long time perceving 
no more. And perhaps when the powers of observation, and 
experimental reflection shall be directed to the mind, exclusively as 
a physical phenomenon j the now contradistinguished functions of 



214 THE TIME OF THE VOICE. 

the senses and the mind will apear to be one and the same, in most 
of their ways and means. A cultivated and searching eye and ear 
are as rarely found, as a well disciplined and self-dependent mindj 
the latter being produced by the former ; and a wise master, in 
human policy and morals, would not have more dificulty, where 
interest is not inimical, in efecting his designs of melioration, than 
an original observer in physical science would experience from the 
massj I was about to say of the Philosophic worlds upon solicit- 
ing an imediate asent to the reality of a manifest development 
of nature, or of some useful invention of art. It is a pasive and 
an easy thing to look and to listen ; but, with a purpose of inteli- 
gent inquiry, it is a labor of wisdom to see and to hear. 

In speaking of the indefinite sylables of the English language, 
it was saidj their time might be varied without deforming pro- 
nunciation ; and we must recolect, that the abrupt elements, which 
generaly terminate imutable sylables, have necesarily after the 
oclusion, a pause which alows them, with the adition of the time 
of that pause, to hold the place, and fulfil the function of a long 
one. With these materials for the construction of a temporal 
rythmus in English versification, nothing but deafnes or prejudice 
prevents our perceving that its institution has been strongly 
prompted by nature, and is already half established in our poetry. 
We alow a reader full liberty over the quantity of sylables, for 
the sake of expresion in speech ; and song employs the widest 
ranges of time on tonic sounds; why should we refuse to the 
measure of verse, a less striking departure from the rules of comon 
pronunciation. 

Mr. Sheridan, who does not overlook the existence of quantity 
in the English language, and its use in the expresion of speech, 
but who nevertheles, maintains that the ' genius' of our tongue is 
exclusively disposed to the acentual measurej seems to ground his 
opinion on the special rules of Greek and Latin prosody, not being 
aplicable to the cases of varying time in English pronunciation. 
He might as fairly have concluded, that the good English style 
of his own lectures could not be as perspicuous as a Latin con- 
struction, because its arangement is diferent from the apropriate 
inversions of the later tongue. 

On this subject we have briefly to inquire j Has the English 



THE TIME OF THE VOICE. 215 

language long and short sylables ; and can these varying quanti- 
ties be aranged, to produce an agreeable rythmus ? The answer 
is as brief. We have, equaly with the Greeks and Romans, the 
long and short sylabic variation ; and it requires some other argu- 
ment against the design of employing it in meter, than that de- 
rived from its having never yet been done. I would not choose 
to contend with him, who doubts that quantity necesarily belongs 
to every spoken language. The ancients not only recognized it in 
theirs, but availed themselves of its use in the creations of literary 
taste : and had Greek and Roman gramarians, in recording their 
special rules for the quantity of particular words, furnished us 
with a little of that philosophy of elemental and sylabic sounds, 
which authorized, or produced the prosodial meters of their sev- 
eral languages, the moderns would in all probability, have seen 
its aplication to their own. 

If the Greeks did not derive the Knowledge and use of Quan- 
tity from Egypt and the East, there is some ground for the opinion, 
tho this part of history is not altogether clear, that the restricted 
melodial character of their musicj its relation to song; the care 
therein taken to adjust the temporal corespondence of sylables to 
notesj together with its forming, as it is said, part of the liberal 
education of their orators, poets, and philosophers^ may have led 
to the close investigation of quantity, and to its employment by 
the later Greeks in their rythmic composition. We are not how- 
ever justified in asuming its early use, at the date asigned to the 
Iliad ; for the fabulous accounts of that Poem leave its original 
condition altogether unknown. We cannot therefore avoid be- 
leving in its counties alterations by Hellenic vanity and pride; 
and that its first mingled measure of quantity and acent was sub- 
sequently changed to its present prosodial form. The modern 
extension of the science of music, to the principles and resources 
of the ingenius system of harmony, has rendered it independent 
of the suport of words ; and the nice measurement of their time 
has been neglected, since the separation of the formerly united 
duties of the composer and the poet. 

I here offer the conjecture, but leave others to determine its 
truthj that the establishment of Greek rythmus on the relations 
of quantity did contribute, with other causes, to refine the character 



216 THE TIME OF THE VOICE. 

of that language. We know what changes rhyme, and the acent- 
ual measure have made in the pronunciation of English ; and even 
with the maturity of this language, there is cause to beleve, that 
one means for enlarging the resources of its rythmus would be, to 
found its versification on the proportions of quantity. The oca- 
sional wants of poets would prompt them to change by license, 
many of our imutable sylables to indefinites ; would lead to the 
elision of atonic or abrupt elements, from the end of sylables ; 
and, by those broad excursions into thot which the comon poet, 
together with the profesional critic seems not to contemplate, is 
rarely disposed to encourage, and certainly never has acomplishedj 
our language might be invited towards that condition of sylabica- 
tion which constitutes in part, the prosodial superiority of the 
Greek. We know that the diaeresis and other licenses of Greek 
measurej to say nothing of the dialects, which must have been 
widely diffused by their literature^ were constantly used for facili- 
ties in the arangement of poetic quantity ; and we might inquire 
whether the addition to its alphabet, of the Heta and Omega, was 
not a contribution to the demands of the temporal rythmus. 

Those who are in the habit of poetical composition, in the comon 
acentual method, know how readily words' of suitable acents are 
at the call of versification. Nay, the ready gathering, or fluency 
of the ear, if we may so call it, is with some persons, in this mat- 
ter so unfailing, that if the purpose of words be disregarded, there 
will be no hesitation in sorting such unmeaning discourse into any 
asumed accentual measure. I mean, that a person with a quick 
poetic ear and a free comand of language, will find no dificulty in 
carying on, for any duration, an extempore stresful rythmus of 
incoherent words or phrases : while he who is not in the practice 
of metrical composition, even if aware of the required sucesion of 
acents, would show as much delay in gathering words to fulfil his 
acentual purposes, as the former would, under the present state 
of the English ear, in aptly furnishing sylables for a temporal 
rythmus. Habit must have given to the Extemporizing poets of 
Greece, if there could be or ever were such persons worth hearings 
the same elective afinity of ear, for the apropriate quantity of their 
verses, as the similar class of Improvisatori in later Italy had for 
their required acents. At least two-thirds of the acented sylables 



THE TIME OF THE VOICE. 217 

of English words are indefinite in their tiniej and being alowably 
made either long or short, may be employed for a temporal ryth- 
mus. Until therefore, we have a larger experience in the use of 
quantity for modern versification, and until the English ear knows 
more of the efect of sylabic time than it does at present, we may 
be justified in considering any belief that a temporal measure is 
not aplicable to modern languages, as altogether without foundation. 

It is true, the number of monosylables and disylables in our 
language excedes that of the Greek ; and this may posibly render 
the former less fit than the latter, for the construction of certain 
systems of measure. On this ground it has been aserted that 
English words cannot be aranged in an agreeable dactylic sucesion. 
This may be the case ; yet we have too little sleight in the manage- 
ment of quantity, to justify a positive opinion on this point ; and 
the trials already made are not quite decisive. Habit is a fore- 
staled and obstinate judge over existing institutions, and often pro- 
nounces unwisely upon their beter substitutes. For we know that 
an anapestic measure, founded on a mixture of acent and quantity, 
and nearly identical in efect with the ancient full dactylic linej is 
well suited to the sylabic and verbal condition of our language ; 
and that a very agreeable rythmus is produced by it. Admiting 
the above objection, it will not overrule the design to establish the 
forms of Iambic and Trochaic measure, now in use, on the basis 
of quantity alone.* 

Although English versification is avowedly raised on the acentual 
rythmus, entire lines are occasionally found, so satisfactorily fulfil- 
ing all the conditions of the temporal measure j they might be judged 
by the revived poetical ear of a Greek, Such lines are however 

* Let lis subjoin a word here, for our delusions and prejudices. The dactylic 
foot, and the anapestic fall with a similar efect upon the ear. The ancients 
used the former, ocasionaly, thru whole lines, in themes of the highest dig- 
nity ; and school-boys are tatj it richly and gravely fulfils its purpose. We 
use the anapestic foot for dogerel and burlesk, and beleve too, there is some- 
thing in its light skip especialy adapted to the familiar gayety of its modern 
poetic use. Let a deaf worshiper of antiquity and an English prosodist settle 
this matter between them ; for, to serve a purpose, even the extremes of con- 
tradiction are sometimes brought together. But on this, as on some other 
articles of the clasical creed, they may be reduced to say, in the sole words 
by which the Yezedi of Persia who worship the devil, briefly explained their 
faith, and pertinaciously defended it against a Christian misionaryj l Thus it is.' 

15 



218 THE TIME OF THE VOICE. 

always preceded and folowed by others, founded on the mingled 
relations of both quantity and acent. One who is skiled in the 
art of measuring the time of sylables, will, over this iregular 
rythmus, be shocked by the unexpected variation of its disimilar 
impresions. An ear of delicate prosodial instinct, which yet makes 
no inquiry into its perceptions, often sufers this violence from 
English verse, but is ignorant of its cause. The poet of high 
endowment, who has at the same time a ready discrimination of 
quantity, with copious thot and language at comand, instinctively 
avoids in composition, much of the evil of these conflicting sys- 
tems. And one of the merits of a good reader of verse, consists 
in changing our metrical acents into conspicuous quantities, by 
extending the voice on all those sylables that have a stres in the 
measure, and will bear prolongation.- 

From all that has been said on the comparative character of 
quantity and acent, and from the slow progres of modern nations in 
distinguishing the relations of the former, it would seemj of these 
two metrical impresions, acent is more easily recognized. Nor 
is it unwarantable to infer, from the greater facility in aranging 
an acentual measure, that the first rythmic essays of all nations 
were in this form of versification ; and that the Greeks pleased 
themselves with this rattling amusement of poetical infancy. There 
is no fact oposed to this inference ; and I could as soon be per- 
suadedj the first instrumental music of Otaheite, was not the 
clatering of shells, as that the earliest songs of Greece were 
measured by the nice relationships of time. Our language, neither 
young nor heedles in all the ways of thot, is yet within its unformed 
childhood, for the graceful steps of quantity : and many of those 
who with earnest wishes, but inefectual means, may have designed 
to advance and refine it j and who by taste and authority, were 
qualified to listen to living voices, with progresively meliorating 
influence upon themj have only wandered off with an unavailing 
ear, among the silent graves of language in the remote realms of 
antiquity. We all experience an august delight over the yet en- 
during works of the distant dead. There is scarcely a page of the 
poetic rythmus of the Greeks and the Romans, or a remaining 
trace of their plummet and chisel, that might not make me forget, 
under intense contemplation, the mere seclusion of a prison. Yet 



THE TIME OF THE VOICE. v 219 

I could as soon admit, that the modern zeal in freighting our 
homeward ships with the fragments of their temples^ and the 
covetousness of nations, for the very purloined posession of their 
statuary, ought to preclude the future use of the marble of their 
ancient, or of yet unopened quaries, for the acomplishment of 
equal or transcending works of artj as that a just admiration of 
clasic rythmus should prevent the endeavor to transfer to our own 
language, the admisible principles of Greek and Roman poetry. 
These remarks aply equaly to the rythmus of Prose; for the 
agreeable arangement of words, by acent and quantity is, as the 
Ancients interwove it with purity, propriety, and precision, one of 
the most elegant characteristics of the Fine or Esthetic art of 
Writing. But we now educate the ear and intelect away from all 
these good things, and down to the People ; in the delusive ex- 
pectation of a final Golden Age of morality and taste ; and as a 
Public-School protection against trading and political dishonesty. 

I have ofered the last few pages of this section, as no more than 
digresive and desultory remarks on a subject, intimately collected 
with the time of the voice, and with the cultivation of an impor- 
tant but neglected Mode of speech. 

The English language has an unbounded prospect before it. 
The unequaled milions of a great continent^ into whatever forms 
of Anarchy, or Despotism, they may be hereafter led by a besoting, 
a be-slaving, and for this world at least, a be-damning love of the- 
Tyranic Wrongs of Vested Rights, of State-bred jealosies,, of* 
Official ignorance and fraud, of paper credit,, debt, restlessness, and 
popularity j must, I say, with every national Upheaving, and En- 
gulfing, by the rage of avarice and ambition, still hold comunity 
in the wide and astonishing difusion of one cultivated and identical 
speech. Nor should we so far undervalue the emulative eforts of 
its future Scholars, as to supose they will all merely regard with 
retrospective vanity, what has, been done,, and not extend their 
views to other and deeper resources, of their art.. But in looking 
forward to the establishment of English versification, on the basis 
of quantity, we must alow a limitation of the poet's abundance ;. 
for the substituted excelence of his few but finished lines. Our 
measure is now drawn from the two diferent sources of acent and. 
quantity. To construct a rythmus by quantity alone, will require 



220 THE INTONATION AT PAUSES. 

more rejections, and a wider search in composition; more copious- 
nes in the comand of apropriate words ; greater readines and acu- 
racy of ear, in measuring the relationships of time; and longer 
labor for the acomplishment of a shorter work. I am here speak- 
ing of the great results of the pen. Of these, as of all enduring 
human productions, labor joined with time, must be the eficient 
means ; and must deservedly divide the merit of the achievement, 
with the wisdom that invoked their aid. Let him who could 
patiently devote a life, to laying-up store of t goodly thots' for 
Paradise Lost, unravel the idler's fable about that ' inspiration/ of 
the so-called imortal works of man. Let them, who to the energy 
of intelect have joined the strong body of laborious care, say, 
wherein consists the true life, and the embalming of fame: let 
them touch the sleeve of early and voluminous authorship, and 
whisper one of the useful secrets, for acomplishing more that may 
wisely instruct and endure, and less that with ambitous haste, may 
only teach itself to sadly failj and perish. 






SECTION XII. 

Of the Intonation at Pauses. 

The term Pause in elocution, is aplied to an ocasional silence in 
discourse, greater than the momentary rest between sylables. 

Pauses are used for the clearer, and more emphatic display of 
thot and pasion, by separating certain words or agregates of words 
from each other. 

The philosophy of grammar consistently with those two great 
Categories, Matter and Motion, has reduced all the words of uni- 
versal language to two coresponding clases : the Substantive, de- 
noting Things that exist ; and the Verb, denoting the various 
conditions of their Actions : all the other Parts of Speech being 
only specifications of the atributes of these things ; and the predi- 
cation of their actions, with regard to time, place, degree, maner, 



THE INTONATION AT PAUSES. 221 

and all their posible relationships. Pauses divide into sections, the 
continued line of words which severaly describe these existences 
and agencies, with their relationships: the restricted uterance, 
within these pauses, giving a sectional unity to the impresion on 
the ear, and a clear perception to the mind, by their temporary 
limitation to a single subject of atention. The division of dis- 
course, by means of this ocasional rest, prevents the feeblenes or 
obscurity of impression, resulting from an unbroken movement of 
speechj no less remarkably than the skilful disposition of color, 
and light, and space, significantly distinguish the pictured objects 
and figures of the canvas, from the unmeaning positions and 
actions of a chaos and a crowd. 

The sections of discourse separated by pauses, vary in extent 
from a single word, to a full member of a sentence. There may 
be some purposes of expresion which require a slight pause even 
between sylables. It was shown that a full opening of the radical, 
must be preceded by an oclusion of the voice. The accented sylable 
of the word at-tack being an imutable quantity, can receve a marked 
emphatic distinction, only by an abrupt explosion of the radical 
after a momentary pause. 

The times of the several pauses of discourse vary in duration, 
from the slight inter-sylabic rest, to the full separation of sucesive 
paragraphs ; the degrees being acomodated to the requisitions of 
the greater or less conection of thot, and to the peculiar demands 
of expresion. 

All the parts of a conected discourse should both in subject and 
in structure bear some relation to each other. These relations being 
severaly nearer, or more remotej gramatical Points were invented 
to mark their varying degrees. The comon points however, very 
indefinitely efect their purposes in the art of reading. They are 
described in books of elementary instruction, principaly with ref- 
erence to the time of pausing; and are adressed to the eye, as 
indications of gramatical structure. It is true, the symbols of 
interogation, and exclamation are said to denote peculiarity of 
' tone/ But as there is in these cases, no notice of the character, 
or degree of the vocal movements, the extreme generality of the 
statement afords neither preceptive nor practical guide to the ear. 
The full eficacy of Points should consist in directing the apropriate 



222 THE INTONATION AT PAUSES. 

intonation at pauses, no less than in marking their temporal rests ; 
and a just definition of the term Punctuation would perhaps, be 
as properly founded on the variety of efect, produced by the 
phrases of melody, as by a diference in duration. Before Mr. 
Walker, no writer, far as I can ascertain, had formaly taught the 
necesity of regarding the inflections of the voice, in the history of 
pauses. 

It is important with regard to an agreeable efect upon the ear, 
as well as to thdt and expresion, to aply the proper intonation at 
pauses. The phrases of melody have here a definite meaning, and 
often mark a continuation or a completion of the thot, when the 
style and the temporal rest alone, would not to an auditor, be de- 
cisive. At the same time, the purpose of the pause being various, 
an apropriate intonation must by its coresponding changes, pre- 
vent the monotony, so comon with most readers, at the gramatical 
divisions of discourse. 

The effect of Pause, in separating parts of discourse, by a sus- 
pension of the voice, will be ilustrated in the next section, on 
Grouping : and I now describe the sucesions of the various 
melody at the diferent places of rest. 

The triad of the cadence denotes a completion of the preceding 
sentence, and is therefore inadmisible, except at a proper gramatical 
period. It does not however folow that it must always be there 
aplied; for in those forms of composition caled loose sentences, 
and inverted periods, members with this complete and insulated 
meaning, are sometimes foundj to which an aditional and related 
clause may be subjoined 3 and consequently not admiting the down- 
ward terminating phrase. 

The rising tritone, by a movement directly contrary to that of 
the downward triad of the cadence, indicates the most imediate 
conection of thot or expresion between parts of a sentence, sepa- 
rated by the time of the pause. The rising ditone caries on the 
thot in a diminished degree. The phrase of the monotone denotes 
a less conection between divided members ; the faling ditone still 
less; and the downward tritone with rising concretes, and the 
ownward concrete of the feeble cadence, produce a suspension of 
thot, without positively limiting its further continuation. As the 
triad of the cadence gives a maximum of distinction among the 



THE INTONATION AT PAUSES. 223 

parts of discourse, and uterly closes a sentence; the comparison 
of its downward intonation with the respective characters of the 
other phrases, may explain the causes of the efect of each, by 
showing their departure from the form and course of this termi- 
native cadence. The degrees of collection between the members 
of a sentence are so various, and the opinions of readers may be 
so diferent, that I do not here pretend to asign the species of phrase 
to every kind of rhetorical pause. From present knowledge on 
this subject, I would say generalyj the intonation at some pauses 
may be varied, without exceptionably afecting either thot or ex- 
presion ; yet there are cases in which the species of phrase, from 
its exclusive adaptation to the character of the pause, is absolutely 
unalterable.* 

The foregoing remarks on the use of the phrases of melody, 
have not been made strictly in alusion to comon gramatical punc- 
tuation. Writers on elocution have long since ascribed the faults 
of readers, in part, to the vague indication of these points, and to 
the distracting efect of the caprice of editors in using them. 

In the notation of the folowing lines, which describe the highest 
thotful sublimity, and stedfast independencej the phrases of melody 
are aplied with reference to only my own aceptation of the pur- 
pose of the Author ; and to its distinct and apropriate vocal rep- 
resentation. I have presumed to difer, in the second and in the 
fifth line, from the punctuation of the London edition of Todd's 
Milton, from which the passage is taken. 

* Let us here supose the intonative and the pausal character of Punctuation 
to be united. Then with six pausal symbols, each of its proper duration of 
rest, a coma might denote the phrase of the rising tritone ; a double or dicoma, 
the rising ditone or the monotone ; a dash, if used, the monotone ; a semicolon, 
the faling ditone; a colon, the faling tritone; and a period, the triad of the 
cadence. 

For mere system-making this might seem to be a pretty adaptation, to be 
taught in the schools ; and thru ages there might be no Observer to wwteach 
it. For this is a picture of theory. But the fixed correspondence ocurs only 
in the case of the full stop, and the triad of the cadence ; the others as far as 
I observe, being under a vague rulej that the faling phrases more generaly 
go with the semicolon and colon ; the rising with the coma and dicoma ; and 
the monotone comonly with these. 

I therefore offer this note as a pasing thot, hinting only at an inquiry into 
the practical use of this, or other similar proposal. 



224 THE INTONATION AT PAUSES. 

So spake the Seraph Abdiel, faithful found 

Among the faithles, faithful only he ; 

Among innumerable false, unmoved, 

Unshaken, unseduced, unterified, 

His loyalty he kept, his love, his zeal ; 

Nor number, nor example, with him wrought 

To swerve from truth, or change his constant mind, 

Though single. 



When the Reader looks upon the change of pauses I have made 
in the folowing notation, he must bear in mind, that whether his 
decision is favorable to it or otherwise, it may still ilustrate my 
view of the power and place of the phrases of melody. If this is 
acomplished, we need not dispute about the free-will variety, as 
it always will be, of tastes, in the particular aplication of these 
phrases. My purpose in this esay is to explain some of the untold 
functions of the voice; not to contend with those who may on 
other points, know more than myself. 

In the use of the phrases of melody, at the pauses of discourse, 
the phrase is to be aplied to the last sylables preceding the pause. 
Nevertheles, for particular purposes of expresion, the monotone 
may be continued on the suceding sylable. 

As this notation is designed to represent only the use of the 
phrases of melody at pauses, I have marked the whole current 
melody with the simple concrete ; omiting waves of the second, 
and some moderate signs of expression, on the long quantities, 
which would be its proper intonation, as an example of that 
intermediate and dignified style, between the thotive and the 
passionative, which we called the admirative, or reverentive. 



So spake 


the Se raph Ab diel ; faith — ful found 


4 4 * 


w my w <tt? ■ Wi ^*- w ^P 1 -i 


A — mong 


the faith les. Faith ful on ly he. 


4 * 


4 4 4 4 % m ~J 


w 


• w : W. ^& w ^^ ^* J 



THE INTONATION AT PAUSES. 225 

A mong in— nu me — ra ble false j un — moved, 



4 tf 4 



Un sha — ken, un se — duced, un ter — 


— i 


— fied ; 


fddfddtfd 


tT 


*m 






His loy — al ty he keptj his 


love, 


his 


zeal. 


^4 4 4 4 4 4 


4- 


4 


"*- 





Nor 


num— 


— ber, 


nor ex — 


-am pie, 


with 


him 


wrought^ 


l-V 


4 


4 




cT" m 






4 1 


w - - - i 



To swerve from truth ; 


or 


change 


his 


con — stant mind, 


j4L* 4 4- 




4 


4 


4 4 4 
iff 





Though sin- 



gle. 



The first pause at Abdiel is marked with a semicolon and a 
feeble cadence ; for the preceding words, here a complete sentence, 
do not necesarily produce the expectation of aditional and con- 
ected meaning ; for that expectation would require the monotone, 
or a rising phrase ; and altho the feeble cadence weakens for the 
moment, it does not disolve the gramatical concord, between the 
members it separates. I have set the triad of the cadence and 
a period at faithles, not exclusively upon the right to asume the 
thot as here completed ; but with a view to prepare for the eminent 
display of the state of mind embraced in the remainder of the 
line. The editor has marked this place with a coma, and made 
the three succeding words, faithful only he, a dependent clause.. I 



226 THE INTONATION AT PAUSES. 

regard this clause, and on gramatical ground, as an eliptical sen- 
tencej and have given it the full, close of the faling triad ; thereby 
to promote the exalting effect admirative expresion. These words 
elegantly reiterate the previous atribution of faithfulnes to Abdiel, 
with the further afirmation of his singlenes in virtue. This defi- 
nite and emphatic restriction of the individuality of the subject, 
is made with deep regret, over the rebelious rejection of truth, 
mingled with exultation that Abdiel alone has the undivided merit 
of defending it. There is a touch of expresion in these words, 
that even with all other due means for an apropriate uterance, 
cannot, as it seems, be answerably displayedj unles they are sepa- 
rated from preceding and suceding clauses, by the marked distinc- 
tions of the limitary cadences, and their punctuative periods. If 
the word faithles should be read with what is caled in the schools, 
a suspension of the voice j which in their indefinite language means, 
avoiding a falL> the designed expresion, as I regard it, of the 
suceding clause will be perverted or lost. Milton's fine ear, his 
vivid, and discriminating intelect, qualified him, under Nature's 
system of elocution, to be a good reader ; and tho he may not 
have been one by practice, I would with dificulty belevej he 
silently thot the passage we are here considering, with the close 
sequence, implied by the editor's comma and semicolon. 

The next pause at false, is preceded by the rising ditone. The 
structure of this member evidently creates expectancy, and the 
species of intonation indicates a continuative thot. I have here 
placed the dicoma to obviate a momentary misaprehension on the 
noun-adjective, false, aplied to the Faithles 3 but here joined to the 
train of epithets distinguishing the Loyal Seraph. 

Of the four suceding pauses, each rests on a single word. The 
first three are noted with the monotone, to foretel the continued 
progresion of the eulogy : the fourth, at terified, has the faling 
ditone, to denote a change, but not a close of thot. I have here 
placed a semicolon, not perhaps acording to its comon use. In 
ordering these four pauses, it would vary the intonation, without 
afecting the meaning, to give the last two sylables of unseduced 
with a rising phrase, by putting se on the same radical line with 
un. The phrase at kept, is the rising ditone, with the dicoma, and 
is expectant; for love and zeal being equaly with loyalty, the 



THE INTONATION AT PAUSES. 227 

objectives of kept, are thus held within the prospective eye of the 
gramatical meaning. For the three objectives being separated by 
the construction, the rising ditone at kept, prepares the expectant 
atention to bring them back into company on the ear, at a form of 
the cadence on zeal; and impreses on the auditor, the true syntax 
of the sentence. 

At zeal, marked by the editor with a semicolon, I have aplied 
a period, and the second or Duad form of the cadence ; for this, 
as just stated, throwing back love and zeal, as objectives to the 
verb kept, prevents their bearing forward, as if nominatives to 
some expected verb ; which might not be avoided, by employing 
a semicolon at this place, with one of the continuative phrases of 
melody. We may acount for the semicolon at zeal, by suposing 
the editor considered the folowing word nor, as a continuative 
particle. Yet it certainly begins a new thought ; and in regard 
both to its place and its imediate repetition, may be looked upon 
as only a poetical inversion, and a redundancy of negative. The 
remaining part of the notation contains examples of the principles 
just elucidated, and therefore needs no explanation. 

I have here endeavored to fill up in part, a blank in elocution, 
by giving a definite description of the intonation to be joined 
with pauses ; and by ilustrating the maner of framing, principles 
to direct the use of the several phrases of melody. Those who 
desire knowledge of the structure of sentences, for aplying these 
principles, may consult books of rhetoric. Mr. Sheridan writes 
with his explanatory ability, on the subject of pause, and gives 
numerous exemplifications of its proper usej yet makes no analysis 
of that intonation which he may perhaps have joined with it, in 
the acomplished practice of his own voice. Mr. Walker has also 
given a masterly treatise on this subject, in his Rhetorical Gram- 
mar. He wisely saw the practical utility of uniting with his view 
of the temporal purpose of pause, an inquiry into the aplicable 
forms of his inflections. In a philosophical view of the subject, 
his treatise contains no description of the functions of pitch, 
beyond the ancient general distinctions into rise, and fall, and 
turn. Not having the materials, for a specific discrimination and 
use of the phrases of melody, he was under the necessity of 
regarding his four general heads, as ultimate species, capable of 



228 THE INTONATION AT PAUSES. 

no further subdivision: and hence, the limited, the indefinite, 
and the eroneous aplication of his whole doctrine of Inflection at 
Pauses. Mr. Walker undertook the investigation of the subject 
of speech, without posesing a discriminating ear; without suficient, 
if any familiarity with certain distinctions of sound, long estab- 
lished in music ; and without seeming to keep in mind the means 
and end of philosophical inquiry. The example of the highest 
masters in natural science had taught, that all he should aim to 
acomplish would be, to separate by ear, the individual and inter- 
mingled constituents of speech ; to name these individuals ; and 
to class them with known facts in the history of sound. But the 
most precise nomenclature, if not the most comprehensive history 
of tunable soundj or, sound distinguished from the endles kinds 
of noise, is contained in the science of music : and Mr. Walker 
apears to have had too feeble or too limited a perception, or no 
perception at all, of its clear and abundant distinctions, to enable 
him to recognize an identity, or analogy between the speaking 
voice, and the familiar phenomena of musical sounds. 

If we might despair that future inquiry will teach us the struc- 
tural cause of the vanishing movement, and of the orotund, and 
falsete voicesj it is certainly now within the ability of a disciplined 
and atentive ear, to percevej certain forms of sound suposed to 
be peculiar to the human voice, are similar to others which have 
been acurately measured and definitely named in the clasifications 
of music ; and consequently, that they might be designated by the 
same nomenclature, far as the terms of music are aplicable to the 
phenomena of speech. Such a method of investigation, with its 
satisfactory results, being the whole means and gains of a true and 
useful philosophy, we might as well belevej the Newtonian dis- 
coveries in optics, could have been efected, without a previous 
acquaintance with the laws of motion, the variety of colors, and 
the relations of mathematical quantity j as look for a description, 
and an available arangement of the phenomena of the human 
voice, from one who is ignorant of the known distinctions of 
sound. 



@©4««- 



THE GROUPING OF SPEECH. 229 

SECTION XIII. 

Of the Grouping of Speech. 

I have adopted a term from the art of painting, to designate 
the efect of pauses, and of certain uses of the voice, in uniting the 
related thots of discourse, and separating those which are unre- 
lated to each other. 

The inversions of style, the intersections of expletives, and the 
wide separation of antecedents and relatives, alowed in poetry, may 
be suficiently perspicuous, to the circumspection of the mind, and 
the advancing span of the eye, in the deliberate perusal of a sen- 
tence. But in listening to reading, or to speech, we can employ 
no scrutinizing hesitation : and tho the instant memory may re- 
trace to a certain limit, the intricacies of construction, the best 
discernment cannot always anticipate the meaning of a suceding 
member, nor the character and position of its pause. Our higher 
poetry, in the contriving purpose of its eloquence, gives many in- 
stances of extreme involution of style : and the reader of English, 
is frequently obliged to employ other means, for exhibiting the true 
relationship of words, besides the simple curent of uterance, that 
may be suficient for the obvious syntax of a more familiar idiom. 

The folowing are some of the means, by which deviations from 
the simple construction of sentences may be rendered perspicuous 
in speech. 

The Clausal Limitation. Here the limitation is produced by 
pauses, only as divisional agents. 

The Phrases of melody ; already in part explained. 

A reduction of the pitch and the force of the voice ; for which I 
use the term Abatement. 

A quickness of utterance ; here called the Flight of the voice. 

The Punctuative Reference ; which by noticeable pauses, directs, 
or recals atention to the syntax. And 

A means of indicating gramatical conection, that may be named 
the Emphatic Tie. 

I have sumed-up the several means here enumerated, under the 



230 THE GROUPING OF SPEECH. 

generic term, Grouping ; and have given each a specific namej to 
invite atention to the subject, by the proposal of a definite nomen- 
clature. 

The most comon form of grouping the conected parts or clauses 
of a sentence, under a given condition of the voice, is by its un- 
broken line, within the boundary of Pauses. The subject of this 
Clausal Limitation, without its name, is so extensively treated in 
the Art of Elocution, that I give here but a single instance of the 
power of the pause, in separating to a certain degree, the thots of 
a sentence, and in giving the proper independency to each. Let 
us take, from the second book of Paradise Lost, the description 
of Death's advancing to meet Satan, on his arrival at the gates of 
Hell. 

Satan was now at hand and from his seat 
The monster moving onward came as fast 
With horid strides. 

I have omited the punctuation of these lines ; and if read with- 
out a pause, they would not be absolutely destitute of meaning; 
for the auditor would perceve the general course of the action 
described. But in this case, there could be no expresive picture of 
the whole, from the conected individuality of its parts. Here are 
four clauses, or separate groups of thot, which should be indicated 
by three momentary rests. 

Satan was now at handj and from his seat 
The monster movingj onward came as fast^ 
With horid strides. 

The first division, ending with at hand, gives notice of the rapid 
aproach of Satan. The second represents the monster Death rising 
from his seat, and is insulated by a pause at moving. This di- 
vision is properly separated from the third, onward came as fast; 
for the third describing the farther movement of Death, in this 
view might seem to forbid the separation, yet its principal aim is 
to show the speed of his progres, by comparing it with that of 
Satan ; and this justifies the distinction, here made. The last 
division, with horid strides, must be separated from the preceding ; 
for if read, onward came as fast with horrid strides, the imediate 
collection of the maner of movement with the declaration of the 



THE GROUPING OF SPEECH. 231 

likenes between the time of it, in the two characters, might au- 
thorize the conclusion that Death was striding, as fast as Satan 
was striding. Whereas the pause at fast, refers that maner of 
moving-onward to Death alonej agreeably to a previous part of 
the context, where Satan is described as moving on ( swift wings/ 
Some of the uses of the Phrases of melody were stated in the 
preceding section. I here ofer one or two examples of the efect 
of an apropriate melody, in carying on the thot, and in producing 
an imediate perception of gramatical relationship. 

On the other side, 
Incensed with indignation, Satan stood 
Unterified, and like a Comet burned, 
That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge, 
In the arctic sky. 

Should the phrase of the falling ditone be used at the necesary 
coma-pause after burned, it will, to the ear, destroy the gramatical 
concord between the relative that and the antecedent, comet. By 
aplying a monotone to the two words in italics, the concord will 
be properly marked, notwithstanding the intervening pause at 
burned; the grouping power of the melody, in this case, counter- 
acting the dividing agency of the pause. 

A similar instance of the power of the monotone, in efecting a 
close conection of the antecedent with the relative, is shown at the 
pause after unheard, in the folowing lines : 

First, Moloch, horrid king, besmeared with blood 
Of human sacrifice, and parents' tears ; 
Though, for the noise of drums and timbrels loud, 
Their children's cries unheard, that pased thru fire 
To his grim idol. 

Let us take one more example of this principle of a grouping 
intonation : 

• » 

Art thou that traitor-angel, art thou he 

Who first broke peace in heaven, and faith$ till then 

Unbroken ? 

In this pasage the phrase, in heaven, is interposed between peace 
and faith, the two objectives of broke. That the syntactic conec- 



232 THE GROUPING OF SPEECH. 

tion between these words may be impresively shown, the slightest 
pause only is admisible after heaven ; and a more conspicuous one 
must be placed after faith. But the further expletive, till then 
unbroken, is imediately conected with faith ; and the only means 
for representing this close relationship, in contravention to the 
delay of the pausej so necesary, after faith, for another point of 
perspicuity^ is by using the phrase of the rising ditone, or the 
monotone, on and faith. The pause at this word, represents 
clearly the full government of the verb broke* while the contin- 
uative phrase, either of a monotone or rising ditone, at that pause, 
prevents its disolving the conection of the previous meaning with 
the suceding expletive clause, till then unbroken. The pages of 
the higher Poets are full of instances of phraseology that require 
the management of the voice here described. Milton and Shak- 
speare cannot be read well, without strict atention to the aparent 
oposition between the purposes of the pause and of the thot, and 
to the Eeconciling Power of the phrases of melody. 

A reduction of the Pitch, and Force of the voice being gener- 
ally combined in reading, I have, in this section, designated them 
colectively, by a single term, Abatement ; which is in most cases, 
to be read in the diatonic melody. Its power of grouping to- 
gether the related parts of a sentence, is exemplified by the well 
known uterance, in an explanatory parenthesis. 

I come now to speak of the perspicuity, to be given to a sen- 
tence, by the Flight of the voice. There is a familiar rule in 
elocution, which directs us to use a quickened utterance on com- 
mon expletive clauses. This function may be extended to other 
gramatical constructions. I give it here the importance of a name 
and an ilustration, from its afording asistant means for represent- 
ing the meaning of some of those instances of close-trimed phrase- 
ology and extreme inversion, ocasionaly found in the higher poetical 
composition. 

In the following example, the part requiring the flight of the 
voice is marked in italics. 

You and I have heard our fathers say;} 
There was a Brutus once, that would have brook' d 
The eternal Devil to keep his state in Rome 
As easily, as a king. 



THE GROUPING OF SPEECH. 233 

The word easily, here qualifies the verb brook' d ; and one of the 
means for impresing this on the auditor, is by the rapid flight here 
directed. A London edition of Reed's Shakspeare, from which 
this passage is quoted, has a pause after Rome. As the purpose 
of the flight consists in alowing the shortest time between the 
uterance of related words, it would suply the omision of this 
pause, to make a slight one after easily. This tends to prevent the 
adverb from passing as a qualification of keeping his state, which 
certainly cannot be the meaning of the author; but which on 
instant hearing, might otherwise, be mistaken for it, without the 
aid of the altered pause and the flight. This is not the place to 
speak of the nice points of emphasis and of melody, to be em- 
ployed with the flight in this pasagej to give clearnes and strength 
to its effect. 

Say first, for Heaven, hides nothing from thy view 
Nor the deep tract of Hell. 

To make it apear at once in speech, that the deep tract of hell is 
equaly with heaven, a nominative to hides j the phrase of the mono- 
tone must be aplied at view, with the flight of the voice on the 
portion marked in italics ; and a pause set after heaven, and re- 
moved from view, where the editor has marked it. 

If the gramarian should raise objections to any of these proposed 
changes of punctuation, he must recur to the design of this section. 
We speak now of the means of adresing the ear ; and its jealous 
demands sometimes require a separation of close grammatical re- 
lations ; and sometimes justify a neglect of the usual temporal 
rests, from the thot and expresion in these cases being more ob- 
vious without them. The art of reading-well may compensate for 
voluntary faults on some points, by the acomplishment of eminent 
efects on others. 

What we call the Punctuative Reference, or grouping, is another 
means for bringing together words, or clauses, separated by gram- 
atical construction ; as in the folowing example : 

Having the wisdom to foresee^ he took measures 
to prevent^ the disaster. 

Here the fact of the disaster should be imediately conected with 
16 



234 THE GROUPING OF SPEECH. 

the tliot both of foreseeing , and preventing: yet by construction, 
foresee is separated from disaster; and without a pause at prevent, 
the momentary atention to the imediate agency of this verb on 
disaster, might obscure the relation between foresee and disaster. 
In this case, foresee might pass for an intransitive verb. With 
the dicomas, the similar pauses at foresee, and prevent, by making 
them emphatic words, asign the former to its objective casej and 
conecting these words as fellow transitives, throw, by punctuative 
reference, their action together on disaster. 

Take another example, from Thomson's charming episode, of 
Lavinia. 

By solitude, and deep surrounding shades^ 
But more, by bashful modesty 3 concealed. 

Here, without the directive grouping of the dicoma at shades, 
and at modesty, the picture of Thot might be obscured 3 and we 
should perhaps overlook the beautiful contrast between the uncon- 
scious and closer self-concealmeht, and that of the previously 
described humble and retired cottage in the vale. 

The following, from Cowper's picture of the Empres of Russia's 
Palace of Ice, in his ' Winter Morning Walk/ may be taken as 
an instance under this head. 

Less worthy of aplausej tho more admired, 
Because a novelty, the work of man, 
Imperial Mistres of the fur-clad Russj 
Thy most magnificent and mighty freak, 
The wonder of the North. 

The four parenthetic phrases in these lines, between applause 
and Buss, produce a slight intricacy j which requires the dicoma 
and its rest at these words, to bring together, on the field of aten- 
tion, the clause that precedes the former, and folows the latter ; 
and to make the impresive comparison between the works of na- 
ture, previously described, and this fantastic efort, in the works 
of art. 

I here remind the Reader that the use of the dicoma, in punc- 
tuative grouping is pointed out under the fourth head of our ex- 
planation of the purposes of this symbol j in bounding a parenthesis, 
and directing atention to the extremes of the included member ; 



THE GROUPING OF SPEECH. 235 

for the punctuative reference j as well as the emphatic tie to be 
presently explained, is one of the aplications of the principle of 
parenthetic elocution. 

In the folowing sentence, the punctuative grouping may give 
clearnes to the reading ; but this cannot reconcile us to the awk- 
wardnes of its disjointed syntax. 

After he was so fortunate as to save himself 
fromj he took especial care, never to fall 
again into^ the poluted stream of ambition. 

Much more might here be properly said on the clasification of 
sentences, and on the time of pausing. "With the Principle here 
exemplified, further inquiry is left to the discrimination and taste 
of others. Both reading and speech abound with ocasions for the 
use of this punctuative reference ; but care must be taken to avoid 
the afectation of its use, in gramatical arangements, where the 
style may be rendered perspicuous without it. 

We have made a distinction between the Clausal limitation 
within the boundary of pauses, and this Punctuative grouping. 
The former keeps together sectional groups of conected thots; the 
later brings together separated clauses and words, with their thots;. 
and both unite their influence, for the just and expresive elocution 
of those parentheses, usualy bounded by the linear Dash. W& 
have therefore dispensed with the use of this symbol ; its purpose 
being efected, both in silent perusal and in speech, quite as efica- 
ciously, and with greater neatness to the eye, by the dicoma, with 
its punctuative reference; which suspends the meaning of the.: 
member preceding the first pause, for continuation, after the second.. 

By the grouping of Emphasis or what is here called, the Em- 
phatic Tie, I mean the aplication of stres, and perhaps in some 
cases, of vocal ity, quantity, and intonation j to words, not other- 
wise requiring distinction j for joining those words and thots which 
cannot, by any other means of vocal syntax, be brought together 
or exhibited in their true gramatical conection. The agency of 
this form of grouping, like that of the last, which we may now 
call the Punctuative Tie, is easily percevedj for related words 
however separated, are at once brought together in their real rela- 
tionships, within the field of hearing, whenever they are raised 



236 THE GROUPING OF SPEECH. 

into atractive importance, by pause, or by force or other means of 
emphasis. 

The following lines, from Collins' 'Ode on the Passions/ 
embrace a construction, requiring the emphatic tie. 

"When Cheerfulnes, a N} T mph of healthiest hue, 

Her bow acros her shoulder flung, 

Her buskins gemm'd with morning dew, 

Blew an inspiring air $ that dale and thicket rungj 

The hunter's call, to Faun and Dryad known. 

The last two lines have an embarassing construction. The 
phrases inspiring air, and hunter's call are in aposition ; but there 
intervenes a clause, that might make rung pass for an active verb, 
and thereby render call the objective to it. To show therefore, 
that by hunter's call the author means the inspiring air, pre- 
viously mentioned, the words marked in italics should receive 
emphatic stres. This is the best means for clearly impresing on 
the ear, that close relationship which is interupted by the con- 
struction. 

This emphatic tie is often employed in combination with other 
means of grouping. In the several examples ilustrating the use 
of the phrases of melody, their influence will be asisted by aply- 
ing this conecting emphasis to comet and fires ; children's and 
pased; peace and faith. In the examples of the flight, the rela- 
tionships between the words brook' d and easily; and between 
heaven hides nothing, and nor the deep tract of hell; and in the 
punctuative grouping, the reference of disaster to both foresee and 
prevent?, of concealment to shades and modesty?, and of mighty freak, 
to applause?, will be more manifest, by the additional use of the 
emphatic tie. 

It is sometimes necesary to employ all the means of grouping 
upon a single sentence, for conecting an iregular syntax, and suply- 
ing an elipsis to the ear. The extreme distortion of English idiom 
in the folowing lines, must be excedingly perplexing to a reader ; 
and, far as I perceve the meaning and the gramar, can be rendered 
somewhat less embarassing, only by the use of all these means. 
The example is taken from the fourth book of Paradise Lost, at 
the end of Satan's addres to the sun. 



THE GKOUPING OF SPEECH. 237 

Thus while he spake, each pasionj dim'd his face 
Thrice chang'd with palej ire, envy, and despair ; 
"Which mar'd his borow'd visage, and betray'd 
Him counterfeit, if any eye beheld. 

Milton uses the word pale, here, and again near the close of his 
tenth book, as a substantive. Its comon adjective-meaning tends 
to throw some confusion into the sentence. Ire, envy, and despair, 
are in aposition with pasion, and are severaly concordant with the 
distributive pronoun each. The only maner in which I can aproxi- 
mate towards a clear representation of this blamable piece of latinity, 
is by making a quick flight over the portion, dim'd his face thrice 
changed with pale, and by an abatement thereon ; by laying a strong 
emphasis on each pasion, and on ire, envy, and despair, to mark the 
concord, by the emphatic tie ; by using the punctuative reference 
at pasion and pale; and by aplying the dicoma, with the mono- 
tone or the rising ditone, to both these words. 

After all, it is a hard picture to paint, for a taste that will have 
true colors, well laid-on. Perhaps another hand, under the direc- 
tion of our principles, may efect its expresion by some more apro- 
priate touch. 

In this and the preceding section, we have been more ocupied 
with the audible means of marking the thbtive meaning of dis- 
course, than with the signs of expresion. But some meaning in 
language must always be embraced by what we distinctively caled 
the pasionative style. 

I would here point out to the clasical scholar, a resemblance in 
the proces and purpose of the punctuative reference, and of the 
emphatic tie, to that of the circumspect atention, always exercised 
in construing a Latin sentence. The English language has few 
variable terminations of noun, pronoun, verb and adjectivej by 
which their concord and government might be instantly perceved, 
however the parts of speech might be in position disjoined from 
each other. In English therefore, as in some other languages, the 
construction is indicated, principaly by the proximate, or what is 
caled the natural, sucesion of words. 

The Latin language has in its varied gramatical forms, the means 
for instant conection of all its related parts : hence, the mind is 
able to make at once, a clear and exact picture of the meaning of 



238 THE GROUPING OF SPEECH. 

discourse^ by aranging its proper order, how widely soever the 
words may be separated. The ease of the adjective imediately 
joining itself to the case of the nounj the verb pointing out its 
agent and its objectj the preposition, its subjectj thereby gramaticaly 
unite or group the individual parts of speech, however scatered 
thruout the sentence. This dispersed position of related yet self- 
uniting words, which is conspicuously used in the Latin language, 
is called in rhetoric, the figure of Hyperbaton; and the choice of 
arangement alowed in the apropriate use of its various species, is 
a principal source of the impresive rythmus, vividnes, and strength, 
in Latin construction. The atention of the Roman orator, and of 
his educated or even of his iliterate audience, must have been 
closely, but from habit almost unpercevedly, ocupied in gathering, 
by gramatical relations alone, every word to its significant place on 
the field of the sentence. And this may be a cause, why punctua- 
tion, at least like ours, was unecesary or disregarded both in Greek 
and Roman composition. The English language has not the self- 
adjusting concordance and government of the Ancient gramar; 
and we are therefore, under its loosely conected verbal relations, 
obliged to employ, among other means for perspicuity, beyond its 
comon points j that of the emphatic tie, the flight, the pause, and 
the punctuative grouping, to draw a wandering atention to separated, 
yet related words and clauses, where the syntax, without this con- 
struing by time and stress, might be intricate or uninteligible. 

I have pointed-out a similarity, in principle, between the Latin 
grammatical, and the English vocal methods of obviating any eror 
or obscurity, incident to a hyperbatic syntax : the whole meaning 
of the sentence, being in one case, signified by the verbal signs of 
concord and government ; and of some particular meaning in the 
other, by vocaly notifying the ear of those displaced relationships, 
not otherwise restorable, than thru an impresive agency, respectively 
of the acent and the pause. 

In the present section, and in other parts of this esay, the ex- 
emplifications are chiefly extracted from two ilustrious Poetsj and 
from some of those who, directed by the same great Principles of 
their Art, are next to them in the bright brevity of the truthful 
and expresive Practice of it; since the boundles range of their 
expresive reflections^ the aresting, but resolvable intricacy of their 



THE RISING OCTAVE. 239 

stylej the thotful bearing of their emphasis j together with the in- 
significance of scarcely a wordj aford every variety of plain and of 
pasionative construction, for exercising the ful-suficient, and ilumi- 
nating powers of the voice. And as the greater includes the less, 
I am persuaded, that should the principles therein established be 
adopted by the Reader, he will have no great dificulty in aplying 
them, to more simple styles of conversation, of narative, and of 
impasioned discourse, both in poetry and prose. Yet when drawn 
aside, from the perfection of Nature in the human voice, to eulo- 
gize the admirable things of intelect, which it is intended and ready 
to display ; let me again repeatj I have taken upon me, not the 
part of the Rhetorician, but merely of a Physiologist of Speech. 



SECTION XIV. 

Of the Interval of the Rising Octave. 

In the foregoing sections, the efect of Pitch was described, only 
as it is heard in the radical and vanishing movement thru the 
interval of a single tone. 

It was shown, under the head Of the melody of simple Nara- 
tive style, that the vanish never rises above the interval of a tone ; 
and that changes of radical pitch, either upward or downward 
never excede the limits of this same interval. Now, such plain 
melody as then suposed is rarely found of long continuance; but 
to avoid confusing the subject, I defered the notice of those vari- 
ations of concrete and of discrete interval, which are, ocasionaly 
interspersed thruout its curent. The wider intervals of pitch used 
for Expresion in the course of a diatonic melody, are now to be 
described. 

By the term rising Octave, whether concrete or discrete, aplied 
to speech, is meant the movement of the voice, from any asumed 
radical place, thru higher parts of the scale, until it terminates in 
the eighth degree above that radical place. This interval is em- 



240 THE RISING OCTAVE. 

ployed for interogative expression ; and for surprise, astonishment, 
and admiration, when they imply a degree of doubt or inquiry. 
It is further used, for the emphatic distinction of words. Nor is it 
limited to phrases, having the comon gramatical forms of a ques- 
tion; for even declaratory sentences are made interogative by the 
use of this interval. 

The pitch in interogation, and emphasis, may sometimes rise 
both concretely and discretely, above the octave of the natural 
voice, and even into the falsetej still the octave is the widest in- 
terval of the speaking scale, technicaly regarded in this Work. 
It expreses therefore the most forcible degree of interogation, and 
of emphasis ; and is the pasionative interval for questions acom- 
panied with sneer, contempt, mirth, railery, and the temper or 
triumph of peevish or indignant argument. 

From the time required in drawing-out the concrete interval of 
an octave, this form of interogation can be executed conspicuously, 
only on a sylable of extended quantity. How then can the inter- 
ogative expresion be given to a short and imutable sylable ? The 
means for efecting this, will be described hereafter, with particular 
reference to interogative sentences. It may be here transiently 
ilustrated by the folowing notation : 




In this diagram, after the first concrete rise of an octave, on a 
long sylablej a discrete change or skip is made from the line of its 
radical, to a line along the hight of its vanish. Now imutable 
sylables, in an interogative sentence, are transfered by this discrete 
or radical change, to a line of pitch at the sumit of the concrete 
interogative interval^ and discretely produce the expresive efect of 
that interval, yet less remarkably than the indefinite sylables 
which pass the same extent of the scale by the concrete rise. As 
there are more short and unacented than long and acented syla- 
bles in discourse, the radical change here described contributes 
largely to the character of an interogative intonation. The dia- 



THE EISIXG FIFTH. 241 

gram shows, that after the radical pitch of a short quantity has 
asumed the sumit-line of the octave, it procedes in the diatonic 
sucesion on that line, until the ocurence of an indefinite sylablej 
when the radical pitch descends, to form a new concrete rise of the 
octave. It apearsj the rule of intonation, laid down when de- 
scribing the diatonic melody of simple naration, does not aply to 
the melody of interogative sentences ; for these employ a more 
extended concrete interval, and a wider discrete transition in their 
changes of radical pitch. 

When an octave is used for the purpose of emphasis, the voice, 
after its concrete rise on the emphatic word, imediately descends 
to the original line of radical pitch, as in the folowing notation : 



M^4 & ^f-^—^L^- ^ ¥ 4 -Zg 



But this subject of emphasis will be considered particularly, 
hereafter. 

The concrete rising octave and its radical change being em- 
ployed for very earnest interogation, and for a high degree of ex- 
presive emphasisj are of less frequent ocurence in speech, than the 
intervals of the fifth and the third. 






SECTION XV. 

Of the Interval of the Rising Fifth. 

The rising radical and vanishing Fifth, like that of the octave, 
is interogative ; and emphaticaly expreses wonder, admiration, and 
congenial states of mind, when they embrace a slight degree of in- 
quiry or doubt. It has however, less of the smart inquisitivenes 
of this last interval ; is the most comon form of interogative into- 



242 THE RISING FIFTH. 

nation ; and without having the piercing force of the octave, may 
be equaly energetic, and is always more dignified in its expresion. 
The explanatory remarks in the last section, on the subject of the 
change of radical pitch in interrogation and emphasis, apply to 
the like uses of the fifth. For after the voice, in adapting itself 
to short quantities, has made a discrete change of radical pitch by 
the interval of a fifth, the suceding melody continues at its eleva- 
tion, till again brought down for the purpose of a new concrete 
rise. And in like maner, after the use of the fifth for emphatic 
distinction on a single word, the pitch imediately returns to the 
original line of the curent melody. 

From the preceding acount of the intonation of the octave and 
of the fifth, we learnj their efects are conizable under two diferent 
forms j the Concrete rise, and the Radical change ; that the octave 
is impresed more remarkably on the ear ; and that the distinction 
between the interogative, and the emphatic use of these intervals, 
consists generaly in the diference of the number of sylables, to 
which they are respectively aplied. 

It was said j the intonation of the octave, either by concrete or 
by radical pitch, is rarely employed ; as a rise of eight degrees 
above the ordinary line of uterance caries most speakers into the 
falsete. And even with those in whom the rise might not excede 
the natural voicej the suden ascent of radical pitch would in some 
cases be ludicrous, from its contrast with the curent melody; 
would be liable to break into the falsete, if varied at its higher 
pitch ; or would be beyond the limit of the speaker's skilful exe- 
cution. These objections do not apply to an ocasional • skip of 
radical pitch in its ascent of the fifth ; the variation being less 
striking by contrast ; and the interval of a fifth above the curent 
melody, being generaly within the range of the natural voice. 

Besides the above described uses of the octave and fifth, some 
canting forms of exclamation, and other familiar voices in comon 
life, are made on these intervals. They require no further notice. 



THE RJSIXG THIRD. 243 

SECTION XVI. 

! Of the Interval of the Rising Third. 

The rising Third, in both its concrete and discrete forms, like 
the two last named intervals, is used for interogative expresion, 
and for emphasis. But its degree in both these cases is less than 
that of the fifth. It is the sign of interogation in its most mod- 
erate form ; and conveys none of those states of mind which, jointly 
with the question, were alotted to those other movements. 

Besides the exceptions to the rule of the plain diatonic melody, 
by an ocasional use of the octave and fifth, it must now be aded, 
that the general curent of the tone is further varied, by the intro- 
duction of the concrete third, and its radical change. It ocurs more 
frequently than the two former; for, altho more rarely than the 
fifth, as an interogative, it is a comon form of moderate emphatic 
intonation. In describing the phrases of melody, it was said, the 
rising tritone or upward sucession of three radicals on as many 
sylables, is ocasionaly employed. On the scale, three radical places 
contain the interval of a third ; it is therefore the space or inter- 
val ocupied by the constituents of a tritone, rejecting the vanish 
of the last, that makes the proper rising concrete third : yet this 
concrete interogative is more impresive than the discrete rise of the 
sucesive radicals of the tritone ; for if the words, Go you there^ in 
gramar, equaly a comand and a question^ be utered in the phrase 
of the rising tritone, with a downward vanish on each of its syla- 
bles, it will have the character of an imperative sentence. Should 
the first word rise concretely a third, thru the space embraced by 
the radicals of the tritone, and the last two be continued in their 
rising radical sucesionj the efect will be interogative, even if the 
last two should bear the downward vanish. The same will be the 
efect when the second word has the concrete, and the last the 
radical change ; or, when the first and second have the comon 
diatonic melody, and the last alone, the concrete rise; showing the 
marked diference in efect between the concrete rise of a third, and 
a rise by three proximate radicals of the same extent. 



244 THE RISING THIRD. 

There is a form of replication in comon speech especialy used 
by the Scots, consisting of a repetition of the afirmative yes or aye, 
in the rising third ; and while the words seem to pay the courtesy 
of asent, the interogative character of the intonation still insinuates 
the hesitation of doubt or surprise. Should the interogative asent, 
implied by these words be of unusual energy, the expresion will 
asume the form of the fifth, or octave. 

When the Reader has acquired the prefatory knowledge, neces- 
ary for the full comprehension of the subject of Emphasis j it will 
be definitely explained, in what maner, and on what ocasions the 
octave, fifth, and third, are employed in this important function of 
corect and impresive speech. But as the emphasis given to promi- 
nent words of concesive, conditional, and hypothetical sentences, 
caries with it, the latent character of an interogatory, its aplication 
may properly be ilustrated here. The folowing examples of con- 
ditionally and concesion call for one of the wider rising intervals, 
on the words marked in italics : 

Then when I am thy captive talk of chains, 

Proud limitary Cherub ! but ere then, 

Far heavier load thyself expect to feel 

From my prevailing arm, though Heaven's king 

Ride on thy wings. 

So in the hypothesis of the folowing sentence : 

If I must contend, said he, 
Best with the best, the sender, not the sent. 

And the same with the exceptive phrase marked in these lines : 

The undaunted fiend what this might be, admired ; 
Admired, not fear'd. God and his Son except, 
Created thing naught valued he, nor shuned. 

It is unecesary to say, which of the wider intervals is to be set 
respectively, on the strong words of these examples. The citations 
were made, to show that the rising third, fifth, or octave, may be 
used on the emphatic sylables of such sentences. 

The interval of the minor third, as we learned in the first sec- 
tion, consists of one tone and a half. It has a plaintive expresion, 



THE INTONATION OF INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES. 245 

but is not, far as I have observed, employed in speech for any of 
those purposes of interogation, conditionality, or concesion, which 
are here ascribed to the major third. 

It may perhaps be useful in this place, for the Reader to take a 
retrospect over the subject of melody, so far described ; and to look 
upon it as consisting of the diatonic phrases formerly enumeratedj 
varied for the purposes of interogation, and of emphasis, by the 
ocasional introduction of the wider rising intervals of the octave, 
fifth, and third. In speaking of the melody of simple narative, 
the radical changes of that style were reduced to seven elementary 
phrases. It may be suposedj the further use of these wider inter- 
vals, in the transitions of radical pitch, justifies an aditional nomen- 
clature, for the phrases employed in expresion. It does ; and the 
Phrases of the Eighth, the Fifth, and the Third, when the transi- 
tion is made by radical skip, either in' an upward or downward 
direction, are the terms for designating, if necesary, these new 
forms of melodial progresion in speech. 



SECTION XVII. 

Of the Intonation of Interogative Sentences. 

Having asigned an interogative expresion to the rising octave, 
fifth, and third, I defer for a moment, the history of the remaining 
forms of pitch, to describe the maner of employing those intervals 
in the course of an interogative sentence ; thereby to learn, how 
they are related both to its curent melody, and to its cadence. 

With a view to exhibit the striking efect of the interogative 
intervals, let us take the folowing declaratory or asertive sen- 
tence, as contradistinguished from the gramatical constructions that 
generaly indicate a question : 

Give Brutus a statue with his ancestors. 

This sentence denotes an intention to honor the patriot ; is im- 



246 THE INTONATION 

perative in its purpose ; and this is expresed by a downward move- 
ment on every sylable. But if the versatile plebean should the 
next moment have a new light of discernment or caprice, he might 
afect to refuse the honorary tribute, by repeating the very words of 
the decree, with the sneering intonation of a question : 

Give Brutus a statue with his ancestors? 

The diference of the state of mind or the meaning, in these two 
instances would be perceptible to every hearer : nor could the 
altered intention of the speaker, in the last case be mistaken. 
The ironical character or efect of the line when thus read, pro- 
cedes from each of its sylables having the rising interval of a 
fifth, or octave, or the inverted waves of these intervals, acording 
to the energy of the sneer ; and it shows the power of that rise, 
in changing an imperative into an interogative sentence. In this 
way only, by the concrete rise or the radical skip of a fifth or 
octave, or their inverted wave, on every sylable, will the question 
be fuly expresed; for should the movement be employed upon 
every word except the last, and this be utered with the diatonic 
triad, the interogation will be lost. If the interogative interval 
be given only to the last word, it will in some degree, denote an 
inquiry ; but much less forcibly than when the movement is aplied 
to every sylable. Besides ilustrating the interogative efect, the 
preceding example likwise shows the efect of the wider intervals, 
when compared with that of the simple concrete of the tone or 
second, in a diatonic melody. The maner of aplying these wider 
intervals, for interogation, will be presently described. 

Before we enter on this subject, the purposes of elementary in- 
struction call for a notice of the varied extent of the use of interog- 
ative expresion ; since some sentences require it on every sylable ; 
others fuly convey the question by partial aplication. To be more 
definite : 

By Thoro Interogative Expresion, I meanj a use of the in- 
tended interval on every sylable. 

By Partial Interogative Expresion j a use of the interval on one, 
or on a few ; others, particularly those at the close, having the 
melody of plain declarative discourse. For brevity, and for sub- 



OF INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES. 247 

stitutive terms, these distinctions may be caled, the thoro and the 
partial interogation, or intonation, or expresion. 

The proper reading of the questions, in the folo wing examples, 
may ilustrate the meaning of the above named divisions. When 
Clarence enters guarded, at the end of the opening soliloquy of 
King Richard III, Gloster thus adresses himj 

Brother, good day! what means this armed guard 
That waits upon your Grace? 

Here the interrogative intonation is heard only on the clause, 
what means this armed guard; the rest of the sentence has both 
the curent and cadence of the diatonic melody. 

When the Queen, in the third scene of the first act, saysj 

By Heaven, I will acquaint his Majesty 

Of those gross taunts I often have endured : 

"'•""■ ■ '■"•■•" - •■ - 

Gloster retortsj 

Threat you me with telling of the King? 

This proud and angry question must bear the interogative ex- 
presion thruout its current, with the rising interval at the close, or 
it will not have the required expresion. 

As the characteristic intonation in each of these questions cannot 
be interchangeably transfered, and as every question makes a 
thoro, or a restricted use of the interogative interval j it would 
seem, there must be some instinctive principles to direct a good 
reader, in designating the places and the limits of its aplication. 
I propose in the present section to treat of interogative sentences; 
and to set-forth some of the principles that apear to govern their 
uses in speech. 

To state and arange clearly, the causes that seem to direct the 
Thoro and the Partial use of interogative expression^ we must 
consider both the Gramatical Structure of the question, and the 
state of Mind, or the Meaning or Purpose which it conveys. 

Sentences are employed interogatively, under five gramatical 
forms. 



248 THE INTONATION 

First. They are constructed asertively, but are made interoga- 
tive by Intonation. 

You say, a People is only Sovereign, when freed from 
the restraints of Morals and Law? 

Let us call thesej Assertive or Declaratory questions. They 
sometimes have an ironical turn, for their intonation ' speaks other- 
wise than what the words declare.' 

Second. They are formed by reversing the declaratory position 
of the nominative, with regard to the verb and its auxiliary. 

Can a Sovereign People exist without Morals and Law? 

Let these be called Comon questions. 

Third. By joining a pronoun to the comon question. 

What Morals and Law can control its Sovereign Will ? 

Thesej we call Pronominal. 

Fourth. By joining an adverb to the comon question. 

Where shall this question he determined? 

Thesej Adverbial. 

Fifth. By joining a negative severally to the comon, the pro- 
nominal, and the adverbial. 

Have not the United States of America begun the experiment? 

Thesej Negative questions. 

Of the Purpose or Meaning, conveyed in a question, we make 
also five divisions, which will be ilustrated as we procede. 

First. A question may be made with an uncertainty, or with an 
entire ignorance in the interogator on the subject of the question. 
This is a question of Real Inquiry. 

Second. The interogator may from colateral circumstances, either 
intimated or declared, have some knowledge, or a reservation of 
belief, on what is verbaly the point of the question. Call this a 



OF INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES. 249 

question of Asumed Belief. Both these questions may be made 
in either the second, third, or fourth gramatical forms. 

Third. But a question with the negative construction, is made 
as a demand for an acording answer ; and when furnished with 
colateral grounds of belief, is sometimes put with the confidence 
of & triumphant asertion. We may call this the -Triumphant 
Inquiry, or Belief. 

Fourth. Questions may be adresed with various degrees of 
Force; of which we make three kindsj the moderate, the earnest, 
and the vehement: but as curious, and wayward ignorance is 
always subject to the excited sway of self- will j questions may 
embrace surprise, anger, scorn, contempt, with every kind and 
degree of passion. 

Fifth. In conection with claims to truth and justice, a question 
is sometimes an apeal to the candor of an oponent, or to the favor 
of an audience. This is an Apealing question. To it may be 
aded the Argumentative or Conclusive, the Exclamatory, and the 
Imperative. As these require a downward intonation, they will be 
aranged and described under a future section, on Exclamatory 
sentences. 

Questions vary in extent, from the fulnes of the comon sentence, 
to the eliptical brevity of a monosylabic word ; as shown in the 
last section on the interogative use of even the afirmative, yes. A 
similar question may be made of no : for notwithstanding this 
declaratory negative is in verbal meaning,' always the same, yet the 
rising intonation, by changing that negative to a question, over- 
rules its meaning or throws it into doubt. 

Upon the subject of Thoro, and Partial intonation, in the vari- 
ous Gramatical forms of questions and their meanings, above 
mentioned, I here ofer some general rules ; or furnish aproxima- 
tions towards them, for the asistance of future research. 

It may be laid down as a rule, almost without exception, that 
where an interogative sentence has the Asertive construction, it 
requires the Thoro expresion. In adition to an example of this 
case given in a preceding page, let us take an instance from Corio- 
lanus, where the same words are used as a declaratory, and as an 
17 



250 THE mTOXATIOJS- 

interogative phrase. In the fifth scene of the fourth act, the 
servant of Aufidius says to Coriolanus 3 

Where dwelest thou? 
Cor. Under the canopy. 
Ser. Under the canopy? 
Cor. Ay. 

Ser. Where's that? 
Cor. In the city of kites and crows. 
Ser. In the city of kites and crows ? 

The replications here set in italics should be read with an in- 
terogative interval on every sylable ; and the cause seems to be 
this. All asertive sentences when put as questions are eliptical ; 
since they imply and should properly include some gramatical 
phrase of interogation. For the speaker here means, either with 
inquisitive doubt as to the words 3 did you say, under the canopy ? 
or with real inquiry as to the placej lohere is, under the canopy ? 
And so of the other instance. But the gramatical phrase of the 
question being omited, it is necesary to suply the defect of the 
elipsis, by the use of a thoro interogative interval. If the interval 
is aplied exclusively to one word or sylable except the last, it con- 
stitutes only a declaration, with an intonated emphasis on the word 
so marked. When set on many sylables, or on all except one, it 
does produce a degree of interogative expresion, yet quite unsatis- 
factory to the demands of the mind, and of the ear. Should the 
interogative interval be on the last, with the other words in the 
diatonic melody, the intonation will fall short of the meaning of 
the phrase, if it would not realy misrepresent it; as the unexpected 
rise at the close, instead of the consistent termination by the dia- 
tonic cadence, would produce an anomaly of uterance irreducible, 
by me at least, to any definite character of expresion. 

A declarative question is then an eliptical sentence, from which 
the gramatical phrase having been omited, the question must be 
signified by an interogative intonation on every word. There is 
however, a kind of asertive sentence, which afirms by the word, 
yet questions with such a slight insinuation of doubt, that it calls 
for only the partial intonation ; as in the folowing of Hamlet to 
the Player : 



OF INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES. 251 

You could, for a need, study a speech of some dozen or 
sixteen lines, which I would set down and insert in't? 

Here the words are declaratory ; and even affirm the power of 
the subject; yet with moderately rising intervals on only the 
phrase, you could for a need> its declaratory meaning is overruled, 
and the rest of the sentence, tho properly diatonic, takes the inter- 
ogative character from this partial intonation. Such cases deserve 
a name for themselves, and are not to be clased with declarative 
questions, which are purely thoro interogatives. 

In a sentence constructed by the nominative placed after the 
verb, or between the verb and auxiliary, forming what we call a 
Comon question^ either the Partial or the Thoro interogative is 
employed. I need not ilustrate the varieties of this case; the 
Reader can readily recur to examples under it, in which the into- 
nation must be determined by the meaning and force of the ques- 
tion, and by the sentence, whether short and simple, or extended 
and complex. 

A sentence constructed with the interogative pronouns or ad- 
verbs, constituting what we call Pronominal and Adverbial ques- 
tionsj and embracing none of those conditions which require the- 
Thoro expresion, comonly apears under the Partial form; as in. 
the folowing examples : 

Who hath descried the number of the traitors? 
How came these things to pass? 
What sum owes he the Jew? 

These lines do not severaly require a thoro expresion; for the- 
question is here suficiently marked, when the interogative interval 
is aplied on portions only of the sentence, particularly on its em- 
phatic words. The ground of the partial aplication may be this... 
In adverbial and pronominal constructions, there is no question 
about the existence or the agency of the subject of inquiry ; and 
its part in the sentence does not call for an interogative expresion. 
The uncertainty is in the relation of that existence, to person,,, 
time, place, maner, number, and degree ; and on these only, the. 
interogative intervals are required. In the first example the ex-- 
istence of the traitors is admited ; the question refering only to 



252 THE INTONATION ^ 

their number, and to the person who had seen them. In the 
second, the existence of the things, and their agency in the event, 
is admited ; the question beingj in what maner, or how they came 
to pass. The third admits the debt; and questions only its 
amount. Some of the exceptions to the generality of this rule 
will be mentioned, in speaking of the varying state of mind or 
purpose in an interogative phrase, and of its final emphatic 
sylable. 

Comon, pronominal, and adverbial questions are made directly 
to the point of inquiry, or indirectly by a negative, to its oposite; 
as in the folowing comon questionj Will he — come ? And in the 
negativej Will he — not come ? The dash being merely to mark 
the diference to the eye. Here the first question is directly to the 
point of his coming. The second is indirect, or to the point of 
his not coming. The condition is therefore not the same in the 
two cases. One is a real inquiry, made in ignorance whether or 
not, he will come; and without hope or fear that he may. The 
other is prompted by the asumed hope, that he will come ; and 
thereupon, anxiously regarding, and fearing the negative side of 
the condition only, asks, if this negative is the fact. Is it— that 
he will not come ? or by elipsis, and by transposition, Will he— 
not come ? 

If we take adverbial and pronominal questionsj the principle of 
an asumed belief, under their negative form, will be perhaps more 
aparent. What did he— not dare? How did he— not deceve ? 
Who is — not covetous ? These cases clearly indicate on the part 
of the interogator, the belief that the subjects of the first two did 
severaly dare, and deceve in all things; and in the last, that all 
men are covetous. Should these questions be made directly to 
their interogative pointsj What did he dare ? their several real in- 
quiries would call for a thoro interrogation ; but as negatives, and 
made indirectly to these points, they may take the partial expresion, 
or even the downward interval and the direct wave. 

A Negative question has the Thoro or the Partial intonation, 
acording to its meaning and force ; and it will be presently shownj 
the negative question sometimes caries the asumed belief to that 
positive degree which requires the downward intonation. 

When a sentence, besides the Point of the question, has aditional 



OF INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES. 253 

members or clauses which contain an adres, or asertions, or exple- 
tives, or reference to causes j the expresion asumes the partial form; 
as in the folowing instances 

Of address : 

Why with some little train, my lord of Buckingham? 

Of asertion: 

Why did you laugh then, when I said, Man delights not me? 

Of expletive: 

Whafs Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba, 
That he should weep for her ? 

Of cause: 

What of his heart perceve you in his face, 
By any likelihood he show'd to day? 

The effect of the rule seems to be, that the aditional clauses 
modify the leading point of the question, yet do not, in their sep- 
arable membership, include an interogation ; which the portion 
of the sentence marked in italics, and here caled the point of the 
question, does gramatically convey. 

When questions of a moderate degree are conected by conjunc- 
tions, or folow in series, without this conectionj it is not necesary 
each question should severaly have the extent of interogative 
expresion, required in its solitary use. 

Give me thy hand. Thus high, by thy advice, 
And thy asistance, is king Kichard seated : 
But shall we wear these glories for a day? 
Or shall they last, and we rejoice in them? 



Are you call'd forth from out a world of men, 
To slay the inocent ? What is my ofence ? 
Where is the evidence that doth acuse me? 
What lawful quest have given their verdict up 
Unto the frowning judge? or Who pronounced 
The biter sentence of poor Clarence's death? 

Should this rule not be contravened by conditions requiring the 
thoro expresionj the question in such instances as the above, is 
sometimes suficiently marked, if each of the several members of 



254 THE INTONATION 

the series has an interogative interval only on a single word ; and 
this reduces the case, in point of expresion, to an ordinary sentence, 
having an emphatic word, so marked by the given interval. Per- 
haps the ground of the rule is, that the mind or ear of the auditor 
being, so to speak, in the humor of the question, the interogation 
is suficiently indicated by the gramatical structure. 

With regard to the State of mind, Meaning, or Purpose con- 
veyed by a question, some notable circumstances govern the use of 
intonation. 

If a question is prompted by the ignorance or uncertainty of 
the speaker, and contains a Real inquiry, it generaly calls for the 
thoro expresion; which must consequently in many instances, 
overrule the partial intonation otherwise apropriate to pronominal, 
adverbial, and comon questions ; to questions in conjunction, and 
in series ; and should they embrace surprise, even to those of nega- 
tive construction ; as in the folowing examples, where the lines in 
italics, including questions of real inquiry 3 the last being prompted 
by surprise^ call for the thoro interogative. 

Hamlet. Dost thou hear me, old friend ? 

Can you play the murder of Gonzago ? 



Hamlet. Have you a daughter? 
Polonius. I have, my lord. 



Prospero. Thy father was the Duke of Milan, and 

A Prince of power. 
Miranda. Sir, are not you my father? 

Altho in the stated form of this rule, only a general efect is 
ascribed to it, yet when the question has much earnestnes, its 
bearing is almost without exception. 

Those questions, in which the interogator intimates some knowl- 
edge on the subject of his inquiry, and which were termed ques- 
tions of asumed belief, take, acording to the degree of force, either 
the partial or the thoro intonation. Under this head, even some 
declarative questions contain so much of an absolute asertion, that 
they require the slightest degree of interogative expresion ; as in 
the folowing, of Hamlet to Polonius : 

My lord, you play'd once in the University, you say? 



OF INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES. 255 

As there is some doubt in this sentence, it is properly marked 
as a question ; yet the colateral phrase, you say, refers to an event 
known before to the interogator, and makes it one of belief: this 
state of mind therefore, requires an interogation only on the words 
in italics. 

Of the Negative question, which under its asumed belief, seems 
to anticipate, or at least to hope for, an acording answer j we find 
an ilustration in Shylock's noted paralel between the Jew and the 
Christian, with his earnest resolve upon revenge. 

He hath disgraced me, and hindered me of half a milion ; laughed at my 
losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled 
my friends, heated mine enemies ; and what's his reason ? I am a Jew : Hath 
not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands? Organs? Dimensions? Senses ? 
Affections? Pasions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, 
subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled 
by the same winter and sumer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not 
bleed ? If you tickle us, do we not laugh ? If you poison us, do we not die ? 
And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge ? If we are like you in the rest, 
we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his 
humility? Eevenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his suferance 
be by Christian example? "Why, revenge. The vilainy you teach me, I will 
execute; and it shall go hard, but I will beter the instruction. 

Here the questions begin withj What's his reason f As the 
answer is made by the inquirer himself, the question is to him 
rather one of belief, or of apeal, than a real inquiry; and is to be 
made by rising intervals, on the first three sylables, with a down- 
ward interval on son; constituting a partial interogation. The 
answer is a full sentence, and serves to ilustrate the expresion of 
the triad of the cadence. This triad is always set at a full period. 
When therefore Shylock, to his own question responds, and asigns 
the reason, / am a Jew, giving a downward interval to /, and the 
falling triad of the cadence to the three remaining sylablesj he 
joins to the close of the meaning by words, a positive closing into- 
nation, which emphaticaly declares, this alone to be the motive, 
and implies by the close, that no more is to be said : thereby aford- 
ing a beautiful instance both of the gramatical, and the intonated 
efect of the cadence. Add to this, the contrasted variety of the 
rising intervals on the question, and the downward intervals on the 
answer : much preferable I would say, for its truth, dignity, and 



256 ' THE INTONATION 

force, to the answer when made by the sneering intonation of rising 
intervals or of waves, sometimes aplied to it. The next two ques- 
tions, Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands ? are similar 
in argumentative meaning, and should have a like intonation. 
They are both negative : and having in a preceding page given 
some examples, showing that the negative question includes in a 
greater or less degree the mental condition of belief; I here ofer a 
further explanation of the maner in which that belief is gramati- 
caly conveyed. 

Let, us take the foljowing as a- Common question of Real In- 
quiry ; Hath a Jew eyes? Then the negative proposition j A Jew 
hath not eyes. If we join a question to the negative declaration, 
we have this form of questioning a negative : Is it so? (that) a 
Jew hath not eyes. Which, with an identical meaning, may be 
thus traced through its various constructions. Is it true ? — a Jew 
hath not eyes : orj is it true of a Jew ? — he hath not eyes : orj a 
Jew, hath he not eyes? And from this, rejecting the pronoun 
and puting the noun in its place, we have : Hath a Jew not eyes ? 
or conecting the negative with the verb j Hath not a Jew eyes? 
which is the most simple form of questioning a negative. Now to 
doubt or question a negative, is in a certain degree, to intimate an 
afirmative; and to question his not having eyes, at least caries 
with it, the asumed belief that he has. Hence negative questions 
may be considered as questions of Belief, under the form of an 
apeal. If this explanation is corect, Shy lock does not look for an 
answer from Salanio ; but implies in the negative apealing ques- 
tionj his conviction, that the same physical and moral constitution 
in the Jew, and in the Christian, entitles each equaly to the rights 
of truth and justice. Under this view, the question put by Shy- 
lock, tho one of asumed belief and of apeal, has its claims to the 
partial, or the downward intonation, overruled by its vehemence ; 
and therefore demands the thoro inter ogative expresion. I do not 
say, that as an apeal taken with the negative construction, the two 
questions might not be given altogether in the downward intona- 
tion; or at least with a direct wave on Jew, in the first, and a 
downward concrete on hands in the second. Yet to my ear, the 
keeness of the thoro interogation is more apropriate to the energy 
of the case. 



OF INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES. 257 

Next folow in sucesion, five words, each being an eliptical de- 
claratory question ; and they are here so marked ; having droped 
the gramatical phrase, Hath not a Jew f These questions severaly 
call for the rising interogative interval, on each of their sylables. 
Let there be no fear of monotony in this case ; the variety of ele- 
mental sound, and of meaning in the words, enable the ear to bear 
the repeated identity of a truthful intonation. We next have a 
sentence begining at fed, consisting of five clauses. This is still 
a declaratory question : but the elipsis that makes it so, does not 
avoid a solecism ; for the interogative verb must be. changed, and 
the question if complete should be, not j Hath not, butj Is not a 
Jew fed with the same food, as a Christian is ? Under its declara- 
tory form in the text, its suposed negative embraces, like the pre- 
ceding questions, a degree of belief and apeal. But the vehemence 
has somewhat subsided, and the intonation may therefore be par- 
tial; particularly at the end, where the diatonic cadence may be 
aplied. The next four clauses are similar ; and each is made-up 
of a condition, and of a negative question. If you prick us, do 
we not bleed ? This union of the condition and the negative, puts 
the question of belief and of apeak in so strong a light, that its 
meaning takes the lead, in the intonation of the several questions. 
All the interogative phrases should therefore have the downward 
intervals ; for these, we shall learn hereafter, form the intonation 
of apealing questions ; while the conditional phrases should have 
the partial, or the thoro expression, as the meaning, or as variety 
may require. The next two clauses are alike in structure, and 
contain, severaly, a condition, together with a pronominal question • 
If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility ? Here the in- 
terogator returning his own answer, the question may be taken as 
an apeal, and receve the downward intonation. Since the question 
conveys a slight degree of sneer, the emphatic sylable of humility 
may receve a wider unequal direct wave of the fifth, which we 
shall learn hereafter is its proper vocal sign : at the same time, the 
rise of the first constituent of this wave, forms a striking and ele- 
gant contrast to the emphatic downward intonation of the answer 3 
Revenge. The other answerj why, revenge, should have the triad 
of the cadence, on its three sylables, forcibly declared by its down- 
ward vanishes ; meaning, as it would seemj there is an end of the 



258 THE INTONATION 

subject, let no more be said. For the higher Elocution, this argu- 
ment of Shylock has great strength and beauty. The vehemence 
with which the rising intonation begins, moderates as it procedes ; 
till it gradualy declines to the downward, yet still impresive into- 
nation of an apeal. If the several questions seem to have too 
close a sucesion of the same rising intervals ; let it be remembered, 
this is not monotony. It is the truth of intonation : and in the 
purposes of an ordained and expresive use of the voice, truth 
and fitnes can never be monotonous to a scientific and cultivated 
ear. 

For a further ilustration of the negative interogatory, under 
that degree of belief called the Triumphant question^ I give here 
an example, showing at the same time, the diference between the 
negative and the common form. 

When St. Paul, before the Judgment Seat, asks, in a comon 
question j King Agrippa, belevest thou the Prophets ? he adreses 
a real inquiry, and cannot, therefore, with propriety, return the 
answer himself. And unles Agrippa had remained silent after 
the question, of which we are not informed, we see no cause why 
Paul should so confidently afirm the belief of Agrippa: for a 
hesitating or evasive answer on the part of Agrippa might have 
been taken as a colateral ground of belief, on the part of the in- 
terogator. Paul's personal narative, and his very properly as- 
cribing to Agrippa, a knowledge of Jewish afairs, even if grounds 
at all, are not implied in his real inquiry. Refering to the prin- 
ciple of asumed belief, that directs a negative question, let us aply 
it to a like construction here. King Agrippa, belevest thou not 
the Prophets ? or, Dost thou not, King Agrippa, beleve the 
Prophets ? For the meaning in both cases is identical ; since they 
each alike question a negative, and ask Agrippa, if he does not 
beleve, or if he disbeleves the Prophets. And, if I am not misled 
both in the analysis, and inferencej to doubt or question a disbelief, 
is, to a certain degree, to suppose a belief. Let then the phrase of 
real inquiry, as the case is recorded, be made negative ; and upon 
this doubt or question of Agrippa's disbelief* Paul, in the con- 
firming zeal of his argument, might, after his apealing interoga- 
tive, fairly make his conclusive declaration. Dost thou not, King 
Agrippa, beleve the Prophets ? I know that thou belevest 



OF INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES. 259 

For the intonation of this altered form of the question, aply 
rising interogative intervals to the words j Dost thou not, King 
Agrippa; making the first three strongly and deliberately emphatic, 
with a slight pause after Agrippa: then reduce the octave or fifth, 
whichever may be used, down to a third on the sylable grip, to a 
second on pa; and terminate the question, by positive faling inter- 
vals onj beleve the Prophets. Give an emphatic downward into- 
nation to the declaration^ I know that thou belevestj with an ex- 
ulting tremor on know; and the question, by its earnestnes, and the 
implied belief of its negative structure, will be a forcible figure of 
speech, and a striking example of the Triumphant inquiry.* 

There is, in the Eleventh chapter of the Second Corinthians, a 
series of questions and answers, by St. Paul ; each somewhat re- 
sembling in structure that adresed to Agrippa, but far more iregu- 
lar. Of these however I take one only, as an example of the 

other four. 

Are they Hebrews ? So am I. 

* "We are told in the ( Acts of the Apostles,' that Paul adresed Agrippa, in 
what we have called a comon question of Real inquiry. But Paul, from his 
own acount of his persecuting the Christians^ was a choleric, and a violent 
man : and was besides, an Enthusiast in the Platonic Philosophy ; that scho- 
lastic source of the fanatical delusions of the ' real presence of Spiritualism ;' 
and of political craft, in the prophecies of ' Manifest Destiny.' Urged and 
sustained by the overbearing energy, and the self-confidence of his character, 
he was necesarily fearles before his acusers, and eloquent in the honesty, and 
declaration of his belief. In the fervor of that belief, he put his question, 
as if his own conviction had reached his judge. Now as I maintain, either 
nature or convention, has apointed the form of a Negative question, to expres 
this hopeful reliance of the interogator, on the yielding asent of the re- 
spondent. But this' is not the form recorded in the case before us. If Paul's 
friends or foes in the crowd, reported the Adress, we cannot be surprised at a 
mistake. If it was writen out by Paul, or repeated by him to others, the 
language must then have wanted the purpose and ardor which directed the 
apropriate gramar of his impresive vocal question. "We may then be alowed, 
with some probability, to doubt that the question was writen down in the 
very words of the speaker. 

The philosophical critic must pardon the merely ilustrating remark of 
this Note. And if this, my pastime of comentary, should disturb the nervous 
Orthodoxy of those who do not like to be caled ' Lovers of Wisdom ; ' they 
will please to observe, that the proposed emendation of St. Luke, who tho a 
Physician, may not have been an Elocutionist, is drawn from a law of Nature 
herself who, among the counties, so caled orthodoxies of men, has never yet 
found one in undeluding likeness to her own. 



260 . THE INTONATION" 

Here, in adition to the unsatisfactory use of the comon question 
of real inquiry, in place of a negative of asumed belief j and to 
the incongruity between the number and person/ of Hebrews and 
Ij the peculiar construction, in making the interogator the re- 
spondent, comits a violent solecism; as a question cannot be the 
premis to an unconditional conclusion. For, so (in like manner to 
what?) am I, has not the least conection with the foregoing ques- 
tion; which afirms no existence as the antecedent to so. The 
purpose of speech is to represent, by sound and syntax, severaly 
both thot and pasion ; and no Art of Elocution, not ours at least, 
can by the modes of the voice, properly convey either thot or ex~ 
presion, upon the inconsistent clauses of this example. We may 
guess f that Paul meant to tell the Corinthians j he adressed them 
as a Hebrew; but he does not say so, by strict, nor even by clear 
eliptical gramar. 

Are they Hebrews ? is a question of real inquiry ; and until 
answered in the afirmative, cannot have the least gramatical or 
mental corespondence with the declaration j so am I, When the 
question is negativej Are they not Hebrews ? it becomes one of 
belief; and so far as the declaration may be thereupon infered, its 
relationship to that asertive interogatory, if I may so call it, is 
somewhat clearer. Now acording to the meaning and power of 
a negative question j are they not Hebrews? the interogator figura- 
tively asumes, that they unconditipnaly are ; and therefore conclu- 
sively declaresj so am I. Yet this strong negative apeal, with its 
asumed asent, even when asisted by emphatic force, and a thoro 
downward intonation j as in, Are they not Hebrews ? So am 1^ 
has not a strictly gramatical nor mental construction ; and it might 
be subject to the consequent j so am I not Hebrews, or a Hebrew., 
There is a discrepancy between the meaning of the question of 
belief in the former, and of the strict conclusion in the latter 
phrase. Nor can its awkwardnes be entirely avoided, and the 
asumed belief be justifiable, without puting both phrases into the 
same form of negative interogation. Are they not Hebrews ? and, 
am not I a Hebrew? or again, am I not one? 

The extent of interogative intonation apropriate to questions 
put Argumentatively, and to those embracing a confident apeal j 
varies from the partial and the thoro rising, to the very reverse 



OF INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES. -261 

condition of a downward intonation. But of tile argumentative, 
and apealing interogation, I shall speak, in a future section. 

When a question is vehemently made, under any gramatical 
structure, and with any number of such questions, either in con- 
junction or in series j the rule very generaly asigns to the expresion, 

the thoro extent. 

Show me what thou 'It do. • 

"Woo't weep? woo't fight? woo't fast? woo't tear thyself? 
Woo't drink iip Esil? eat a crocodile? .. * 
I'll do't. Dost thou come here to whine? 
To outface me with leaping in her grave? . : " 

The pasionative state that directs the voice in these several 
, questions, has an exces of vehemence, and its purpose is interoga- 
tive. The interogation therefore, must be vehemently marked by 
its rising intervals on every word, or there will be no corespond- 
ence between the pasionative state of mind, and the vocal ex- 
presion. • It may perhaps be saidj this repetition of the same 
interval, would be monotonous. If so, the charge is made against 
Nature ; and it is always hopeful to defend her. Let him who 
w T ould try it for variety* give the several questions, alternately 
with a rising and a faling octave or fifth ; and hear then, their 
meaning quite destroyed, by this see-saw of real monotony. Again, 
let him otherwise contrast these intervals, for some must risej and 
try every sucesion that may seem to promise variety; then we 
shall have, together with a striking odity, a far worse monotony 
, of afectation. After these trials, let him give each question with 
its proper rising interval ; and we can say whether the pasionative 
state is not as deeply impresed on us, as it is forcibly expresed by 
him. He is only teling the truth of uterance, with emphatic 
repetition ; and we, if fit for sympathy, cannot pereevea monotony, 
which not being in his thot or pasion, he does not vocaly expres. 
Yet see the elocution, in the Poet's mind and pen ! He put eight 
questions within these lines, and thot then, as we may therefore 
say now, that all should have the rising intonation. He paid this 
tribute to expresion, in the first six ; and with a mind unconscious 
of monotony in truths and only to give it variety, by another 
phrase with the downward interval, and its vehement asent, he 
thot, and in pasionative contrast wrote j Til do it. 



262 THE INTONATION 

Say, thou Al-Observant, and Al-Reflective power of Shakspeare ! 
do I not speak the truth of thy discrimination, as thy Al-Reaching 
language, so often speaks to me the everlasting truth, and truthful 
analogies of nature and of life ! 

But to return. Should a question be adressed with a moderate 
form of inquiry, it generaly takes the partial form of expresion. 
When Hamlet says to Guildenstern 3 

"Will you play upon this pipe? 

the composure of mind and the rank of the Prince mingle in the 
question, the mild authority of a request, with the doubt of an 
inquiry ; and this is perhaps properly represented by the use of a 
moderate interogative intonation on the first part of the sentence, 
with a subsequent reposing descent of the diatonic cadence. It 
would apear, the instrument is brought into the scene, and the 
question thereupon put, with a view to the consequent quible ; 
and on this ground, perhaps, the word pipe might be regarded as 
emphatic. Still the emphasis may be made by moderate stres or 
force, on the last constituent of the triad, without the necesity in 
this case, of a rising interogative interval. Should this moderate 
degree of the question be earnestly increased, it would take the 
thoro interogative, unles overruled by a negative construction, to 
the downward expresion. 

When a question is asked with surprise, indignation, scorn, and 
other similar states, it generaly receves the thoro expresion. Let 
us take some examples from the scene, in the first act of Hamlet, 
between Hamlet, Horatio, and the two officers ; where, from the 
moment Horatio informs Hamlet of his having seen his father, 
there folows, on the part of the Prince, a sucesion of questions, 
with both the declaratory and interogative construction, requiring 
with one or two exceptions, a marked use of the thoro expresion. 

There are thirteen questions in this dialogue. In aplying our 
principles of intonation to them, the Novelty of the mater in this 
Work, and the required peculiarity of its arangement, make it 
necesary to anticipate some points of our subject, that will be fuly 
explained hereafter. It is found by the experience of those who 
gain knowledge from books, that what is worth reading at all, 
should be read more than once ; diferent parts of a system being 



OF INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES. 263 

the best expositors of each other. The Student of Nature is al- 
ways, again and again, going over the Pandect of her self-explaining 
Volume. 

After some words about the late King, our extract from the 
dialogue begins herej 

Hor. My lord, I think I saw him yester-night. 
Ham. Saw ? who ? 

Here seem to be two separate questions. The First is eliptical ; 
either for the declaratory interogative phrase, you sawf or for the 
comon question, did you see f and refers soley to the fact of an 
aparition : since Hamlet's thot is, for the moment exclusively 
directed to the impossibility of the King, his father, having been 
seen. The Second is ungramatically eliptical either for, saw whom? 
or for, whom did you see f and refers to the person of the aparition. 
By taking these as two separate questions, we are enabled to give 
more force and variety to their intonated expresion. They each 
expres astonishment and inquiry, the former predominating ; and 
this, we shall learn hereafter, calls for a wide downwardj and the 
question, for a wide rising interval. These diferent expresions in 
the first question are therefore conected and reconciled by the faling 
continued into the rising octave ; forming what we call the inverted 
wave. The astonished interogation of this wave, is then to be 
aplied to the first question sawf The second question, whof 
by an eror in case, is eliptical for, Who did you 'see ? It is not 
however, properly a declaratory word, requiring a rising interval ; 
as an interogative pronoun, it does even when alone, always convey 
the meaning of a condition or question. But the question has 
already been emphaticaly made on saw f With a moderate pause 
after this word, the astonishment may therefore be expresed by 
an emphatic downward octave on who ; forming what will be de- 
scribed hereafter, as the Exclamatory question. In this way, the 
expresion of these two words, both forcible and true, is efected 
with more variety, than if the same intonation were used on each. 

Hor. My lord, the King, your father. 
Ham. The King, my father ? 

This being a declaratory question, under a state of astonishment, 



264 THE INTONATION 

calls for an impresive thoro interogation ; which may be made, as 
in the last case, by the inverted wave of the octave on King ; and 
as the short quantity of the sylable/a, will not bear the prolongation 
of the wave, and perhaps, not even the simple rise of an emphatic 
octave, without deforming its pronunciation j the interogative ex- 
presion might be efected, by taking fa, at the curent level of the 
voice, and then rising with ther, by an upward skip of radical pitch, 
to the hight of an octave, as exemplified in the fourteenth section. 
Horatio having then detailed the circumstances of the Ghost's 
visitation, Hamlet asksj 

But where was this? 

What was said, in ilustrating the intonation of sentences con- 
structed with the adverb and pronoun, aplies here : for as the 
question emphatically regards the place \ where must have either a 
simple interogative rise of an octave, or fifth, or a union of these 
respective intervals, in the form of an inverted wavej and, was 
this asumes the first duad form of the cadence. 

Mar. My lord, upon the platform where we watch 'd. 
Ham. Did you not speak to it? 

This is a negative question. All that was said formerly of the 
examplej Hath not a Jew eyes, and of the other like cases, may 
be refered to, and aplied here; with the exception however, that 
the present question is less vehement, and therefore less confident 
in its asumed belief, and in the hope of an acording answer. The 
greater energy in the former case required the thoro expresion ; 
here, the interogative may be either thoro Or partial, as Hamlet's 
asumed degree of belief may direct. If however, as it apears to 
me, there is, in the thot that Horatio should, yet might not have 
spoken to it, some pasing disposition to reproof on the part of 
Hamlet j the intonation should be partial, to expres the reproof, 
perhaps on the word not, by a positive downward interval. 

Hor. My lord, I did ; hut answer made it none. 
Jf am. ^Tis very strange.- 

Hor. As I do live, my honored lord, 'tis true. 
Ham. Indeed, indeed sirs, but this troubles me. 
Hold you the watch, to night? 



OF INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES. 265 

This is a question of real inquiry, which by our general rule, 
calls for the thoro intonation. Still there may be another cause 
for it here. Thinking men in their purposes, either good or badj 
if indeed, that exalted agent real thinking ever stoops, as fictional 
thot often does, to an unworthy purpose j always have a motive for 
them. When therefore, Shakspeare makes the whole company at 
once, answer this question, we must supose it is to show, the ques- 
tion is not adressed to any one, but to all. Consequently, the in- 
terogative expresion should be thrown over the whole sentence, 
with a slight emphasis on, to night; the time being the unknown ; 
as holding the watch, and the sentinels to be set, are the given 
quantities, so to speak, in the mind of Hamlet. 

All. "We do, my lord. 
Ham. Arm'd, s«y you ? 

This is not strictly, a question of real inquiry. For Horatio 
having formerly described the king, ' arm'd at point, exactly, cap- 
a-pey Hamlet is aware of his having so apeared. Still, in cases 
where the mind is unprepared for a new impresion, and hardly 
receves itj Hamlet recurs, by the phrasej say you, to the former 
report by Horatio r and asks for a confirmation of it. This, from 
the colateral inference, being then a question of belief, might seem 
to call for the partial intonation. Yet as the thot comes back to 
Hamlet, with some surprise ; as an earnestnes is implied in the 
desire to have the former statement repeated ; and as the question 
consists of only three words, and those, important to the point, 
each should receve the interogative expresion. 

Hor. Arm'd, my lord. 
Ham. Prom top to toe ? 

This is a declaratory question, and requires the thoro interoga- 
tion. 

Hor. My lord, from head to foot. 
Ham. Then saw you not his face ? 

This is a negative question, with its asumed degree of belief; 
yet as its temper is earnest; as the last word is emphatic, and 
18 



266 THE INTONATION 

requires an interogative interval, the whole question calls for the 
thoro expresion. 

Hor. O, yes, my lord ; he wore his heaver up. 
Ham. "What! Look'd he frowningly? 

I cannot at once determine for myself, the gramatical character 
of the first word of this question : tho inclined to take it for an 
exclamation, rather than an interogative. In each case it must be 
considered an elipsis ; in the former, perhaps for what a wonder ; 
in the latter for what was his apearance f As a pronominal 
interogatory, it requires a wide rising interval ; and the folowing 
phrase, looked he froivningly, being a question of real inquiry, with 
the thoro expresion, we have unecesarily, and with seeming levity 
of voice, two consecutive interogations. In the other case, taking 
the pronoun as an eliptical exclamation, with a downward fifth, or 
octave, and a subsequent pause, the gravity of this interval would 
contrast agreeably with the thoro rising interogation, and give 
greater dignity to the whole expresion. 

Hor. A countenance more in sorrow than in anger. 
Ham. Pale, or red ? 

This is a declaratory eliptical question, and should receve a 
thoro interogative. But perhaps we may find an overruling 
cause why it should take the partial. These words make an em- 
phatic contradistinction ; and as that distinction must be denoted 
by the voice, we would give to pale, a rising interogativej and to 
red, a downward positive intonation. Were the quantity of this 
last word greater, it might receve, with more propriety, the direct 
wave ; its first or rising interval, moderating by its interogative 
efect, the positivenes of its downward termination. Yet even 
with the single intervals above proposed, the question is marked, 
and the words are contradistinguished, by an emphatic and varied 
intonation. This example forms one of the exceptions to the very 
general rule, that declarative questions should receve the thoro 
interogative expresion. Yet it is to be remarked in this casej the 
doubting disjunctive or, overrules, in a degree, its declaratory 
character. 



OF INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES. 267 

Hor. Nay, very pale. 

Ham. And fixed his eyes on you? 

This, if a question, is a declarative one ; and requires the inter- 
ogative intervals throuout. There seems nevertheles, to be an in- 
dication of belief in this sentence, which should make it an afirma- 
tive remark, requiring a downward intonation. If so, perhaps 
the question, as noted by the editor, is anuled, upon this colateral 
inferencej that a ghost apearing to a person, would very probably 
fix his eyes on him. 

Hor. Most constantly. 

Ham. I would I had been there. 

Hor. It would have much amazed you. 

Ham. Very like, very like. Staid it long ? 

The last three words, are here the question ; and containing a 
real inquiry, call for the thoro expresion. 

Hor. "While one with moderate haste might tell a hundred. 

Mar. Ber. Longer, longer. 

Hor. Not when I saw it. 

Ham. His beard was grizl'd ? No? 

Hor. It was, as I have seen it in his life, a sable silvered. 

There seems to be some dificulty in this last question. If the 
phraseology were completed thus : His beard was grizPd, *was it 
not ? the case would be quite clear. For, taking the first phrase 
under this form, as a declaratory question, it would receve a thoro 
interogative intonation : the second, being a proper gramatical 
question, with its rising intervals, and folowing the first, would 
have the propriety and force of an emphatic repetition of the 
question, under a negative and apealing form. But when, as in 
the dialogue, the construction of the last phrase is reduced by 
elipsis, to the monosylable ?io, and both the phrases are then 
made intonated questions, it renders in some degree, the elocu- 
tion awkward, and the meaning obscure. Every edition of Shak- 
speare I have examined, makes each of these phrases, a separate 
interogation. If they are so, the first is a declarative question, 
and therefore must have the rising interval on every word ; JSo, 
being always declarative must have that meaning anuled by its 
rising interval. The question having however, been distinctly 



268 THE INTONATION" 

expresed by the first phrase, an endeavor to enforce it, under this 
brief monosylabic construction, would produce only an inefectual 
vocal repetition. For a single interogative interval on the word 
no, that in meaning and gramar never conveys a doubt, does not 
here, give the impresion of the question, which is efected, by a 
like interogative intonation, on the above proposed and full gram- 
atical question, was it not f If the Reader will give a thoro ex- 
presion to these two diferent forms of the sentencej His beard was 
grizl'd ? no ? andj His beard was grizPd ? was it not ? he will 
perceve in the laterj the inquiry is clearly enforced, by its repeti- 
tion under the diferent form of a negative apeal ; in the former, 
there is some verbal contrariety and consequently an undetermined 
character in the elocution. For in this case it might seem, with- 
out due reflection, that Hamlet having first inquired whether the 
beard was grizled, imediately answers his own question, by a dec- 
laration that it was not. But taking this single word acording to 
the text, as a question, even a wide interogative interval on no, has 
not the power to destroy entirely, the usual and strongly declara- 
tive meaning of this negative monosylable. And this produces, 
a confusion, which the full gramatical question j was it not, would 
entirely obviate. 

There is another view to be taken of this example ; for Elocu- 
tion is. a curent of divided, and sometimes diverging streams. 
The phrase, His beard was grizPd, may be taken as a positive 
afirmation by Hamlet, from a full recolection of its living color, 
and used as aditional means of identifying the aparition with his 
father. In this case, it should have the downward intonation of 
a comon asertion. The phrase being so regarded, Hamlet seems, 
for a moment, to question his own conviction ; and thereupon, by 
the declaratory question, no, here an elipsis forj was it not grizl'd ? 
asks Horatio, by a rising fifth or octave, on this negative mono- 
sylable, if it was not so. My own ear and reflection incline me 
to this maner of treating the example. But under ignorance of 
the full verbal and mental analysis of the subject, the two parts of 
the sentence, being universaly marked as real and separate ques- 
tions, I did, on that condition, in the first case, propose for them, 
what seemed to me a suitable intonation. 

To the scientific and practical Artist-Reader of another age, 



OF INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES. 269 

skiled in the principles, and if we may so speak, in the design, 
light and shade, color, and perspective, of Elocution, we may 
predict* that without some further discernment, or a change of 
language, in his day, the structure of this sentence will never 
alow a quite satisfactory intonation. As however, Hamlet must 
speak from recolection, I would propose, acording to the maner 
just described, to make the first clause a simple asertion, with a 
doAvnward intonation ; and no, with a wide interogative interval. 
Yet this, from the influence of the usualy unconditional meaning 
of no, does not satisfy me ; and perhaps it is only a poor apology 
for my own inability, to sayj the sentence, however it might be 
vocaly Thot, should never have been writen, to be read aloud, or 
spoken; and tho awake to a conventional expresion, yet here, 
Shakspeare, the Actor, slept. 

I have said little on the emphatic words, and other points in 
these questions ; and have only ocasionaly noted the extent of the 
intervals ; the object being, to describe some of the forms of partial 
and thoro interogation, and the general character of their expresion ; 
tho it may here be remarked, that nearly all Horatio's answers 
should have thruout, the downward interval of a third or fifth, 
acording to the degree of expresion required : the intonation 
being apropriate to the solemnity of the scene, the confidence of 
the answers, and to the seriousnes with which Horatio sympathizes 
with the wonder of Hamlet. Add to the propriety of this down- 
ward movement, the contrast with the earnestnes of the rising 
intervals of Hamlet's comon and declaratory questions. Perhaps 
in the last example, the several answers of Horatio and the two 
oficers, having taken an argumentative and more familiar turn, 
the intonation should be enlivened by a mingling use of proper 
rising intervals. 

Among the purposes of this "Work, the title-page anounces, its 
design to render criticism in elocution, inteligible, thru the study, 
and promulgation of its system and principles. I have therefore 
aimed to show, by the preceding explanatory criticisms, how these 
principles may be aplied ; leaving others, with competent knowl- 
edge, and an observant industry to make particular aplications for 
themselves. Personal Authority has always laid such a stupefying 
weight on the human mindj it is hoped this book may be consulted, 



270 THE INTONATION 

only for those submited principles which observation, experiment, 
and well- watched thinking, may hereafter confirm; and not as 
critical opinions intended by the author, only to ilustrate his 
subject; an ilustration being often, no more than an analogy to 
the meaning of a proposition, not an examplary proof of it. 

We have another instance of the thoro intonation, produced by 
an excited state of mind, in the retort of Cleopatra, to Proculeius, 
the friend of Caesar. 

Know, sir, that I 
"Will not wait pinioned at your master's court ; 
Nor once be chastised with the sober eye 
Of dull Octavia. Shall they hoist me up, 
And show me to the shouting varletry 
Of censuring Rome ? Rather a ditch in iEgypt 
Be gentle grave unto me. 

The repulsive indignation of this question cannot be fairly rep- 
resented, without an earnest degree of interogation. As there 
seems however, to be some implied apeal, in the word, shall* it 
might be suposed, the question is one for partial intonation. But 
under this, or any other exceptive condition, the pasionative state 
of mind would overrule it. 

Should the last sylable of a question be emphatic, and its into- 
nation not directed to the partial expresion by the preceding rules, 
particularly that, regarding the seriesj the last sylable bears the 
inter ogative interval. Should the sentence be short, or consist of 
a single member, the expresion will have a thoro aplication. In 
the dialogue between the murderers of Clarence, the second speaker 
exclaims and asksj 

"What, shall we stab him as he sleeps? 

From the answer of his companion it is plainj the question 
points at the act of sleeping, and this produces an interogative 
emphasis on the last word. Had the inquiry been, whether the 
victim should be stabbed, or otherwise put to death, the word stab 
would carry the emphatic intonation, and the sentence might end 
with a diatonic cadence. 

It will be shown in a future section on Exclamatory sentences, 
that a phrase, with the gramatical form of a question, yet having 



OF INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES. 271 

the interogative purpose overruled by cokteral influences, is not 
properly expresed by rising intervals, but by a contrary movement. 

Having brought the subject of thoro and of partial interrogative 
intonation, into something like a describable form, I leave the 
corection of its erors, and the amplifying of its aproved hints, as 
a work for the beter ear, and closer attention of others. 

Let us analyze more particularly, the maner of employing the 
interogative intervals on individual sylables. 

Prefatory to this investigation, it is necesary to consider the rad- 
ical and vanishing movement, when aplied to short and imutable 
sylables. In the second section I described the means by which the 
various concretes may be exemplified on long quantities ; and there 
aserted, that no sylable however short, can be utered without pasing 
thro the radical and vanish, under some form of intonation. Per- 
haps the Reader is now prepared to receve proof, that the concrete 
does rapidly pass by wider intervals, even on immutable sylables. 

We will suppose, he is familiar with the interogative expresion 
of a slow concrete rise by a third, fifth, and octave, on prolonged 
sylables. Then let him pronounce the imutable sylable top, without 
meaning or pasion ; and again, as an earnest question. He will 
perceve, in the last case, that however quickly utered, it will still 
have the peculiar interogative expresion. This interogative ex- 
presion, on the slow time of an indefinite sylable, is audibly and 
measurably made by the wider interval of the fifth or octave ; and 
as there is no other means for producing concretely this interogative 
efectj the inference is fair, that the voice in producing that same 
efect on a short sylable, must have pased, however rapidly by one 
of those wider intervals. For it cannot in this case, procede from 
a peculiar vocality ; nor from an impresive degree of force ; and 
that it is not produced soley by a radical skip of the sylable to 
a high place of pitch, may be heard in the folowing experiment. 
Let the Reader rise step by step thru the musical scale, on the 
word top* taking care to give it no more than the concrete of a 
second at each degree : yet with this discrete rise to any hight, there 
will be no interogative efect. To what then is this effect, on an 
imutable sylable to be ascribed, if not to a momentary concrete 
flight of the voice, on an interogative interval ? The audible efect 
justifies the conclusion ; tho the increments of time and space on 



272 THE INTONATION 

the scale, so distinctly perceptible in the slower concrete, are on 
the imutable sylable, altogether beyond measurement. 

From this view of the diference in time of the radical and 
vanish, on indefinite and on imutable sylables ; and with reference 
to the uses of their diferent times in the intonation of interogative 
sentencesj let us call the measurable movement of the voice thru 
an indefinite sylable, the Sloiv Concrete : and its momentary flight 
thru a short and an imutable one, the Rapid Concrete. 

It apears by the trials above proposed, that the interogative 
efect is producible on the shortest sylables; and similar experi- 
ments warant the general conclusion, that every interval of the 
scale in whatever time, is practicable on every sylabic quantity of 
speech. It is however to be remarked that the rapid flight of the 
wider intervals thru short sylables, compared with their slow move- 
ment on the indefinite, has a feeblenes of interogative expresion, 
directly proportional to its rapidity; and consequently, that the 
slow and distinctly measurable concrete on indefinite sylables pro- 
duces a more marked impresion on the ear. Yet it is desirable 
that the thoro expresion should be equaly diffused over the sen- 
tence ; and as all sylables have not sufficient length, to bear the 
slow and most impressive interrogative concrete, it follows that 
other means besides those already described, must be employed on 
short sylables, for effecting with uniformity, the intonation of a 
question. The means for strengthening the comparative feeble- 
ness of interrogative expression on short sylables, consists in 
raising them, by change of radical pitch, by the interrogative 
interval, to the line at the summit of the slow concretes on in- 
definite quantities; as the following notation of an instance of 
thorough expression will exemplify. 

Give Bru tus a stat ue with his an ces tors ? 



jf=j=^=t=i==s=t=\ 



jk. — $g) — $$- 



In this case the interrogative intonation is made by the fifth on 
every sylable. On the first two, which are indefinite and emphatic, 
the slow and measurable concrete is used. The third being immut- 



OF INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES. 273 

able, cannot bear the slow concrete ; the pitch is therefore sud- 
denly transfered by radical change to the hight of the preceding 
vanish ; where, at the same moment, the sylable takes on the rapid 
concrete of the fifth as represented by the diminished symbol. The 
melody continues at this hight, on all the following unemphatic 
sylables, or which, if emphatic as may be said of stat, are of im- 
mutable quantity. From his, the radical pitch descends to the 
indefinite sylable an, for the purpose of rising on this sylable by 
the slow concrete ; and the two final short quantities terminate the 
melody, by radical change and the rapid concrete. 

It is by this method then, the union of a radical change with 
the rapid concrete, that a full and forcible interrogative intona- 
tion is given to those sylables, which are too short to admit of the 
slower and measurable movement. 

The Reader may observe the effect of this radical change, by 
deliberately pronouncing the noun convict, as an earnest question. 
The sylable con being an indefinite quantity, and emphatic, will 
be distinctly heard to rise concretely from a given point of pitch, 
to the place of the fifth or octave, according to the earnestness of 
the expression ; and the immutable sylable vict, with its discrete 
skip and rapid concrete, will be heard at the hight of that pre- 
vious vanish. If vict, after the slower rise of con, is kept down 
at the level of the radical of con, and there uttered with a rapid 
concrete rise, carefully guarding against the descent to a close, the 
interrogative intonation is still perceptible, but in a degree far 
inferior to the keen questioning of the radical skip, combined 
with the rapid concrete. 

It is not difficult to assign the cause why the interrogative effect 
of the rapid concrete is enforced, by its being taken on the higher 
places of the scale. For the rise by the slow concrete is after all, 
but a gradual change from a low to a high pitch ; and tho that 
gradual, or continuous change is plainly distinguishable, in its 
degree of expression, from a discrete skip to the same hight, still 
an essential yet not the exclusive agency of the gradual movement, 
is its designating that higher place by terminating there. This 
designation is the sole efficient in the radical skip ; and like that 
of two discrete notes on a musical instrument, when heard succes- 
sively, as the extremes of a wide interval of the scale, it does in 



274 THE INTONATION 

effect closely resemble a concrete transition between the same ex- 
tremes. When to this effect of the radical change, the co-oper- 
ating expression of the rapid concrete is added, the combined effects 
become equivalent to the interrogative expression, produced by 
the slow concrete on an indefinite sylable. 

As the rapid concrete of a short sylable, even if emphatic, pro- 
duces however moderately, an interrogative expression, it may be 
used ivithout the radical change, in cases not requiring a strongly 
marked intonation of the question. In other words, all the inter- 
rogative sylables of sentences bearing the partial expression, for 
a thoro expression is generally forcible, may be kept at about the 
same line of radical pitch. But the short sylables so assigned, 
must still perform their rapid concrete in the appropriate interrog- 
ative interval : and it will generally be found, that the moderate 
temper of such questions has the abated expression, ascribed to 
the Third, in the history of that interval. 

Besides that succession of radical change above noted and ex- 
plained, there is another method of applying the general principle 
of its formation and use. When the first part of a sentence con- 
sists of short quantities, the interogative expresion may be made, 
by the voice seting out at once with a rapid concrete, on the higher 
pitch, and descending afterwards at the first emphatic sylable of 
long quantity. By taking-away from the preceding example, the 
first two slow concretes, and seting over the remaining symbols, 
the folowing phrase, as an earnest question^ 

Pitt a statue with his ancestors ? 

it will have the just interogative expresion. 

Perhaps the Reader is now prepared for this general statement; 
That the current melody of interogation, in sentences requiring 
the Thoro expresion, is made by the slow concrete interval of the 
third or fifth or octave, on long and emphatic sylables ; and by a 
change of radical pitch, together with the rapid concrete, on the 
short and unemphatic, and the unacented ; that in sentences, re- 
stricted to the Partial expresion, the intonation is made by a similar 
use of the above named interogative intervals, in collection with 
the phrases of the comon diatonic melody ; and that in each sepa- 
rate case of a Thoro, or Partial expresion, the interogation may in 



OF INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES. 275 

the same sentence, be formed soley by the Third, or Fifth, or 
Octave, or these several intervals may be used together in the same 
sentence^ as the words require, on the one hand, the same degree 
of expresion, and on the other, an aplication of the diferent inter- 
vals to the varying demands of those words. 

Having shown, with regard to interogative intonation, that all 
the rising intervals are practicable on the shortest sylabic timej 
their expresion, however moderate, being by what we have called 
the Rapid concretej it should here be aded, that universaly, the 
characteristic efects of all the intervals, both upward and down- 
ward, are perceptible on short and unacented sylables. With this 
principle of intonation in view, the Reader is refered to the 
eleventh section, where the use of the rapid concrete is transiently 
aluded to, in aplication to an exemplified instance of the co-opera- 
tion of the character of a short, with that of the full expresion of 
an extended sylable. It is there said of the linej 

Pa?-don me, thou bleeding piece of earth. 

That, by the slow concrete on par, and on bleed, together with a 
certain co-operation by the other sylables, the due expresion is 
spread effectively over the whole line. And it now apearsj the 
same plaintive interval of the same time, which is slowly employed 
on those two prolongable quantities, is, tho faintly, perceved in its 
rapid flight thru the short and unacented sylables; each form 
of intonation contributing a diferent portion and degree of the 
intended expresion. 

Let us now learn the means for constructing the Cadence of in- 
terogative sentences : or, as most of these sentences have not the 
peculiar close or descent of the cadence, strictly so caledj let us to 
be more precisej learn the maner of intonation on their three final 
sylables. 

The close of a sentence with the Thoro expresion, is made in 
one of the folowing forms. And let the Reader remember, that 
when aplied to proper interogative sentences, the terms slow and 
rapid concrete, mean always, the rise of the interval ; for there is 
a distinction to be made between these sentences, and others, with the 
gramatical construction of a question, which require the downward 
intervals. 



276 THE INTONATION 

In the First, if the three sylables are unemphatic, or imutable if 
emphatic, or are the unacented sylables of an emphatic wordj the 
interogative efect is produced by a radical change, and a rapid con- 
crete of these final sylables : these sylables at their elevated pitch, 
being caried on in the phrase of the monotone, or of the rising 
ditone. For the interogative expresion always implying a contin- 
uation of the voice, as distinguished from the close of the Triadj 
the above named phrases do add their peculiar character to that of 
the rapid concrete, and thus efect the required continuation, at the 
end of the sentence. This species of close is here exemplified. 

He said you were in com pa ra — ble ? 



w^m 



In the Second ; the same thoro expresion being still suposed j if 
the antepenult sylable is emphatic, and of indefinite quantity, it 
asumes the slow concrete, and the last two take on the radical 
change and the rapid concrete^ shown by the notation of the word 
ancestors in a preceding example. 

In the Third ; if the penult is a long quantity, it will rise by 
the slow concrete ; and the last will have the rapid concrete with 
the radical change. This form of intonation may be obvious 
without a diagram ; and from what has been already shown, it 
will be unecesary to give an ilustration by the staff, to all the 
suceding descriptions within the present subject. 

In the Fourth ; if the last sylable of a sentence requiring the 
thoro expresion, is emphatic and capable of bearing the slow con- 
crete, it asumes that form of intonation. Under this condition, 
the radical pitch of the three sylables may go thru the downward 
tritone, as here represented. 

Give Fab ius a tri umph for his de — lay? 



nm 



fsas^ 



OF INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES. 277 

In this instance, the concrete rises of the octave, fifth, or third, 
as the case may be, will create a perception of continuity, and 
counteract the tendency of the radical descent, thru three sucesive 
tones, to produce a close : for it is a condition of the terminative 
cadence, that the vanish of its last sylable should be in a downward 
direction. 

When a sentence has the Partial expresion, and the last words 
do not require the interogative intervals, the cadence should be 
diatonic, and therefore terminate with the apropriate triad. But 
questions with the partial expresion sometimes have one of the 
last three sylables emphatic, which then calls for an interrogative 
interval. Under this condition, the folowing will be the structure 
of the cadence. 

First. When the antepenult sylable is emphatic, and of indefi- 
nite quantity, it will take the slow interogative interval; and the 
last two will sucesively descend from the point below the radical 
of that concrete, and form with it, a proper diatonic triad. 

Second. Should the penult be emphatic, and bear the slow con- 
crete, the last sylable will have its radical pitch a tone below that 
of the preceding, and by its downward vanish will produce the 
close of the triad ; the emphatic sylable with its interogative into- 
nation, being in radical pitch, a tone below the antepenult. This 
construction however, is not comon ; for if the emphatic interoga- 
tive expresion on the concrete interval comes so near the close, it 
is generaly continued, by the last sylable rising with the radical 
change. 

Third. When the final sylable is emphatic, and of indefinite 
time, the cadence is made like that of the last diagram, in the 
preceding acount of thoro expresion. 

The history here given of interogative intonation, embraces a 
few leading observations on its forms and efects : and the whole 
subject ofers some interesting views on the philosophy of the 
human mind, as well as that of speech. It shows how far, the 
demands of thot and pasion outrun the significant powers of the 
voice at present in use; how counter-curents of expresion meet 
without confusion; and how varied states of mind, under the 
same forms of intonation, are distinguished by the conventional 
specifications of language. I leave the discovery and beter ar- 



278 THE EISING SECOND. 

rangement, of other phenomena, and of the rule of their variety, 
for the observation of the Reader. Upon some future extension 
of the principles of this esay to the universal practice of speech, 
the subject of interogative intonation will form a full chapter of 
methodic detail. I see, perhaps dimly, some of its abundant and 
unsorted materials; but have not time, if even the ability, to light- 
up, to gather-in, to disentangle, to specify, combine, and complete. 
What is here done, may seem to be too much. For the present 
age, I beleve it is. But this is a concesion altogether foreign to 
our anticipations of the progres of knowledge, and to the pleasure 
we may derive from our atempt to unfold it. A history of the 
desirable and welcome truth of Nature, in the dignified confidence 
of even its humble contributions, no more asks the favor and 
aplause of those who read, than Nature herself asks the gratitude 
and worship of those who enjoy her bounties. She gives what 
she gives, in her own prideles wisdom, without distracting her 
self-energized dispensations, by the subordinate schemes of hopeful 
ambition. A record of her admirable things should be, in all, the 
image of her ; and perhaps he would both do and enjoy more, in 
the work of discovering and describing her, who could catch a 
portion of the unostentatious liberality with which she bestows, 
and who could put on some of her indiference, to the too often 
thotles praise or blame of those who receve. 



SECTION XVIIL 

Of the Interval of the Rising Second. 

We return from the foregoing acount of the use of the wider 
intervals of pitch, in the construction of interogative melody, to 
the enumeration and description of other intervals of more limited 
extent, yet of no less esential eficacy in the scale of intonation. 

The rising interval of the second or tone, both in its concrete, 
and in its discrete form, has in previous parts of this esay been 



THE RISING SECOND. 279 

atentively considered, with regard to its character and its position 
in speech. Continuing our orderly notice of all the intervals of 
the scale, we here resume the subject of this Second, with some 
further remarks on its important uses. It is the basis of the dia- 
tonic melody ; and is apropriate to those thotive parts of discourse 
which convey the plain meaning of the speaker, as distinguished 
from those pasionative states of mind, that call for wider intervals, 
and other signs of Expresion. Altho the Tone, in its simplest 
state, is excluded from among the especial agents of expresion, we 
shall hereafter learnj it may be made impresive by stres on dif- 
erent parts of its concrete ; and that an extension of the voice into 
the wave of this interval, gives an admirative or reverentive 
dignity to the diatonic melody, without destroying the plain and 
unobtrusive character of its intonation. 

The radical and vanish is a necesary function of uterance ; for 
no sylabic impulse can be made, without passing thru some one 
form of the concrete. In aserting, that imutable sylables in a 
diatonic melody do pass instantaneously thru the second or tone, I 
confes my ear cannot measure the progres of the transition. Yet I 
am led to the conclusion, by the folowing considerations. 

Every equable concrete uterance of a tone, with its measurable 
increments of time and motion, has manifestly the radical and 
vanishing progresion. When therefore the time of this slow and 
manifest concrete, is gradualy shortened, in repeated pronunciation, 
till it becomes, seemingly a point of soundj the intonative eject of 
this instant-impulse on the ear, does not difer materialy from that 
of the concrete, in which the increments of time and the progres 
of pitch are clearly measurable. 

And further, it has been shown, that the concrete interogative 
intervals of the third, fifth, and octave, may be pased thru on an 
imutable sylable. This was proved by the peculiar eject of the 
interogative voice being thereon distinctly conizable ; and we shall 
learn in the next section, that the semitone, which by its peculiar 
expresion cannot be mistaken, does likewise pass thru the concrete, 
on the shortest sylables. We can then scarcely suposej the Tone 
has not the same concrete movement on momentary sylables, as all 
the other intervals of the scale when utered with the same mo- 
mentary impulse. There is however a plain but characteristic 



280 THE RISING SECOND. 

efect in the thotive momentary flight of imutable sylables, clearly 
distinguishable from that of their prolonged and pasionative uter- 
ance on the concrete space of a semitone, third, and other wider 
intervals. This may be only an instant-point of voice ; but under 
the above inference, we are scarcely alowed to doubt, its being a 
rapid concrete pasage thru the second or tone. We learned, in 
the seventeenth section, that the wider intervals are heard with 
both the slow and the rapid concrete, in interogative sentences. 
Finding here that the like times of movement are used in the 
simple second ; and as intimated above, it is the same with the 
semitone ; we may state this general law of intonation^ that all 
intervals, whether thotive or expresive, are employed both in the 
upward and downward direction, under the two forms of slow 
and of rapid concrete, respectively on the long and short quantity 
of sylables. 

Perhaps the Reader may desire to know particularly, what 
portions of discourse receve the tone or second ; and with what 
continuity the diatonic melody is employed. In describing and 
ilustrating this melody, it was, acording to the plan of gradualy 
unfolding our subject, represented as continuing thru sucesive sen- 
tences. The diatonic movement is however, rarely found of long 
continuation ; the curent of the Tone being ocasionaly interupted 
by some expressive form of upward and downward concrete, and 
of radical pitch. We have already learned in what maner the 
wider rising intervals are employed in this melody, both for em- 
phasis, and interogation. Other intonative means are introduced 
for the same purpose. As ocasions for using emphatic or pasion- 
ative intervals ocur in discourse, the diatonic melody generaly ex- 
ists only in limited portions ; its continuity in the tone or second 
being broken by these impresive intervals, more or less frequently, 
as the various forms of their intonation may require. A gazete 
advertisement, a legal instrument, and the purely comunicative 
style of plain narative and description, may generaly be read in 
this melody. Yet even these must have emphatic words that call 
for some expresive vocal sign ; and rarely, compositions adressed 
to taste, are without their melody being ocasionaly varied, by the 
more or less frequent ocurence of other intervals than the second. 
Acording to the line I have endeavored to draw between thot and 



THE RISING SECOND. 281 

pasion, and consistently with their apropriate intonation, it might 
be suposed, the propositions of Euclid should be read in the con- 
tinuous diatonic melody ; but even these are often varied by wider 
intervals, introduced upon ilative, absolute, conditional or except- 
ive phrases. The fragments of this melody, ocuring in prose 
declamation, in poetry, and in the drama, are generaly of limited 
extentj and comon speech when not plainly didactic nor designedly 
solemn, nor unavoidably dullj in the heedles curent of its intona- 
tions, almost efaces the simple lines of the thotive second, by the 
vivid coloring of its widely-varied intervals. 

The diatonic melodyj far as practicable with our intermingling 
divisionsj is asigned restrictively, to a character of discourse caled 
narative ; and it being desirable^ this melody should be executed 
with the greatest propriety and elegance, we must carefuly regard 
the uses of the interval of the second for the atainment of these 
ends. 

This proper second of the diatonic melody, not having the vocal 
expresion of other intervals, is limited in its efective character, to 
the means of time, and stres, on its own simple concrete, and wave. 
The diferent forms of stress aplicable to a simple concrete rise of 
the second, will be described in a future section. The other prin- 
cipal means for ading dignity and grace to this plain melody, is 
that of a long quantity; by continuing the upward into the down- 
ward second, in the form of a Wave. It is not however, pro- 
longation alone, that produces a clear and agreeable efect, in a 
dignified form of diatonic speech. That length should be made 
in the equable concrete movement; and further, the wave, as well 
as the simple rise, should have the initial fulnes, and gradual ter- 
mination, except otherwise varied by the purposes of stres. He 
who has not cultivated his voice in these particulars, will find it 
dificult to give extended length to an indefinite sylable, with its 
coexistent equability and vanish ; and will, on trial, be very apt to 
cary out a long quantity, with the intonation of song. But if he 
will throw away some of his conventional thot, about a ' Natural 
Turn' for things; and all his vain conceit about self-suficient 
' Genius/ and ' promptings of the heart ; ' cease to beleve, that a 
good elocution is coeval with the first cries of infancy ; and then 
set himself to learn the rudiments, and overcome the difficulties 
19 



282 THE CHROMATIC 

of this elegant artj the light and guidance of knowledge and 
principles may lead him to an unering comand over the equable 
concrete, and to the atainment of every propriety of speech. 

Facility in managing long quantities on indefinite sylables, with 
a precision of interval, and a smoothnes and nicety of vanish in 
the execution of this equable movement, is one of the most efective 
resources of a speaker. The skilful performance of this concrete 
function, in the impresive fumes and dignity of the Orotund, gives 
that ear-felt satisfaction, when an acomplished Actor, as I have 
heard it, with his masterly comand of voice, first takes part in 
the dialogue, even on a solitary sylable : while the Young ' Genius 
of Inspiration/ stooping for help to Green Room traditions ; and 
distracted perhaps by a buz in the audience, or a mistake of his 
Costumer, is obliged to work thru a whole act, before he is able 
to feel himself, as he calls it, up to the full power of his voice. 
But science, with time, is always ready to prevent, tho it can rarely 
cure, the obstinacy of ignorance and conceit. 






SECTION XIX. 

Of the Interval of the Rising Semitone; and of the Chromatic 
Melody founded thereon. 

The smallest but not the least important division of the scale, 
on which the radical and vanish may be heard and measured, is 
the interval of a Semitone. In the second section of this esay, 
we learned the means for acquiring a distinct perception of this 
concrete interval. It was there saidj if, in ascending the scale, 
the efect of the transition from the seventh to the eighth place is 
compared with the sylabic uterance of a plaintive state of mind, 
their identity will be acknowledged. This interval from the 
seventh to the eighth, in the diatonic scale, is a semitone. It is 
used in speech for the expresion of complaint, pity, grief, plaintive 
suplication, and other states alied to these. 



MELODY OF SPEECH. 283 

In ascending the diatonic scale, by a repetition of the word fire, 
subdivided into two sylables, with a prefix of the subtonic y-e to 
the last, so that fi and yer shall be alternately set on sucessive 
points of the scaler the transition from the seventh to the eighth 
place, when the word is contracted to its single sylabic state of fire, 
gives by its radical i, passing into its vanish rj the same plaintive 
expresion it has in the streets, on the public outcry of alarm. 

Intonation by the concrete semitone is universaly, the sign of 
animal distres ; and when exemplified by the scale, the efect is 
very diferent from that of the concrete passage of the word as a 
single sylable, thru the space of a whole tone, between its first and 
second degrees. Among a multitude of voices where the alarm 
of fire is given by public cry, this uterance of the second is oca- 
sionaly heard ; and perhaps some of my Readers may be able to 
call to mind the defect of its unsympathizing diference from the 
plaintive intonation of the great majority. It cannot be exempli- 
fied by the pen ; but when the uncomon impresion of a particular 
cry, among a number, is not produced by vocality or by shrilnes, 
it generaly arises from this misaplied form of pitch. Without 
the means of close acquaintance with men, they may be estimated 
by certain characteristics of their classes ; and tho our judgments 
in the case may sometimes be eroneous, there is often truth, and 
always caution in this method of opinion. Be this as it may, I 
never hear the phlegmatic cry of fire, on a whole tone, particularly 
in the Thoro stress, without a persuasion of the general impotence 
or deformity of the voice or the ear, that in this particular, can so 
far transgres the ordination of nature.* 

* Since the first publication of this Work, in eighteen hundred and twenty- 
seven, the practice of outcry in the streets of Philadelphia, has in eighteen 
hundred and fifty-fivej the date of this Notej entirely pased away. Instead 
therefore of being as formerty, arouzed in the stilnes of midnight, by the 
"Watchman's holow Orotund, to the plaintive interests and solemn contrasts 
of near and distant solitary cries, awakening our safety, to sympathy with 
the perils of a conflagration ; hear what we have now, under the prosperous 
onward-ism of our great political, moral, and esthetic ' mission :' the Alarm- 
bells of a whole city at once ; the jangling clapers of Hose-cariages without 
number ; the ceaseles roar of inarticulate trumpets ; the screams of boys; the 
yells of men ; the wrangling preparations for a street-fight ; the ow??-shouting 
shouts, upon the first voley of stones; the discharge of revolvers; the uproar 
of a thousand brutal throats; and the cautious absence of a ' non-comittal' 



284 THE CHROMATIC 

The semitone is employed for moderate degrees of expresion ; 
and rarely for great energy, harshnes, or violence of pasion. It 
afects generaly a slow time and long quantity. The interjective 
exclamations of pain, grief, love, and compassion, are prolonga- 
tions of the several tonic elements on this interval. The effect 
however of its rapid concrete is distinctly perceptible, on the short 
time of imutable sylables. For it will be found by experiment, 
that the word cup, with other imutables, can be utered with a 
plaintive intonation, even in its shortest time. As this plaintive- 
nes, so distinctly measurable on short quantity, is always produced 
by the concrete semitone, and not by any other known interval^ it 
may be fairly concluded, that when heard on an imutable sylable, 
the semitone is rapidly performed, even tho the gradual course of 
its time and motion is imperceptible; showing the plaintive use of 
the semitone, to be within the general law of intonationj and that 
every interval is heard, in both the slow and the rapid concrete, as 
the diferent times of sylables direct. 

In the next section, we shall learn the uses of the downward 
vanishing movement. It is necesary however, to consider here 
transiently, the downward vanish of the semitone ; this being one 
of the constituents of the chromatic melody of speech, now to be 
described. 

The downward radical and vanishing semitone may be exem- 
plified on the scale, by pasing from the eighth to the seventh on 
the word fire, as one sylablej and descending, alternately by the 
subdivisions fi and yer to the second, where the single sylable is 
again to be used. The concrete movement on the single sylable 
fire, from the eighth degree to the seventh has a plaintive expres- 
ion ; whereas the movement on the same sylable, from the second 
to the first, has quite a diferent character. When therefore the 

republican police. After the Imperial Roman had robed-out every Treasury, 
every Temple, and every private purse, within reach of his quarelsome and 
ruthless sword, his avaricious courage failed ; and the Barbarian came back, 
and down upon him in righteous revenge. We, by rapacious Treaties, and 
Civilized Craft, are pursuing and exterminating the Native Indian from his 
Land. But Hah ! with retributive justice, he seems, in the forced submision 
of his retreat, to have thrown to the winds, his gros and unlawcd temper; 
which now, like a national malaria, is spreading an avenging savagism among 
his conquerors. 



MELODY OF SPEECH. 285 

voice rises on the single sylable, concretely by the semitone, at the 
summit of the scale, and imediately in continuation descends by it, 
this repetition of the interval must prolong the plaintive impresion. 
As the pathetic state which dictates the semitone usualy afects a 
slow time, and an extension of sylabic quantity, the expresion is 
generaly made by continuing its upward into its downward con- 
crete, in the form of a Wave. This answers two important pur- 
poses. It denotes more impresively the state of mind, by a repe- 
tition of the interval, and in extending the equable concrete in the 
line of contrary flexure, alows a prolongation of voice, without its 
liability to pass into the protracted radical or protracted vanish of 
song. The expresive efect of this doubled semitone may be ex- 
emplified on the word fire, as a single sylable, by making an ime- 
diate return in the downward direction, on the subtonic r, after 
ascending from the seventh to the eighth of the scale on the tonic 
i of that word : for this exactly resembles the plaintive uterance of 
a prolonged sylabic time in speech. 

The states of mind expresed by the semitone, are sometimes re- 
stricted to individual words ; sometimes they extend over phrases 
and sentences, and even thruout discourse. These last ocasions, 
requiring the semitone on every sylable, necesarily produce a 
melody consisting of a continued sucesion of that interval. We 
learned in the eighth section, that the curent of the Diatonic mel- 
ody is formed by sucesions of sylabic pitch on the interval of a 
whole tone. The curent movement we are now describing, being 
by the sylabic pitch of a semitone, may be caled the Semitonic or, 
termed in music, the Chromatic Melody. Like the former, it is 
subdivided into the curent melody, and the melody of the cadence. 
Its course may be resolved into seven Phrases, similar to those in 
the diatonic progres. Yet the change by radical pitch in the chro- 
matic curent, as it apears to me, being by the interval of a tone, 
only when it descends, and not when it ascendsj the use of the 
nomenclature must be pardoned, when I denote the several semi- 
tonic phrases by the terms asigned to those of the diatonic melody. 

There is in the Chromatic Melody of speech, as in the Diatonic, 
neither Key, nor Modulation. A similar use of the seven phrases 
at the punctuative rest, for continuing, suspending, or closing the 
th5t, is made in each ; and the same rule aplied for varying the 



286 THE CHROMATIC 

phrases of the curent melody. The expresion of the chromatic, 
being generaly more grave, or subdued than that of the diatonic, 
the former more frequently afects the phrase of the monotone. 

In describing the diatonic melody, its esential movements were 
subdivided into the concrete, and the radical pitch. The same dis- 
tinctions ocur in the course of the chromatic melody. Its concrete 
pitch is always the interval of a semitone. Its radical pitch, if I 
have not ered in observation, is conducted in the folowing maner. 
When the curent melody descends, the radical change is downward, 
over the space of a whole tone ; in ascending, the radical change 
is upward over the space of a semitone. This change of a tone in 
descending, will be perceved on executing the downward ditone of 
a chromatic melody, and comparing its efect with that of the first 
two constituents of the triad of the diatonic cadence : for if the 
downward radical pitch of a chromatic melody be folowed by an- 
other downward radical, similar to the first ; or in other words, if 
we attempt to make a downward tritone in a plaintive intonation, 
the triad of the cadence will be thereby so nearly acomplished, 
that it requires for its consumation, only the faint downward 
vanish of that triad on its last constituent. Now the radical pitch 
of the triad of the cadence is formed of the sucessive descent of 
whole tones. 

The folowing considerations lead to the conclusion that a radical 
change in the upward direction, is in some cases made by the step 
of a semitone. By intonating the scale in the maner directed at 
the begining of this section, it will be perceved that after rising 
thru the first semitone, on fi, the next sylable yer seems to begin 
at the top of that preceding concrete ; making the radical change 
of the ascent in this case a semitone ; and as every concrete of a 
chromatic melody is a semitone, it would folow, by the rule of the 
scale, that each sucesive sylable of a chromatic progresion, when 
the radical pitch rises only one degree, must be at the distance of 
a semitone above the preceding. But it has been shown that the 
concrete pitch of this melody is, in slow uterance, generaly con- 
tinued into the returning downward vanish of the semitone, in the 
form of a wave ; here then, the above cause for the radical change 
taking the interval of a semitone in its upward progress does not 
perhaps, aply. Whether in this case the subsequent upward 



MELODY OF SPEECH. 287 

radical change is by the semitone or the tone, I am not prepared 
to decide, with the confidence I have felt in the result of other 
observations recorded in this Work. 

In general, there is not much change of radical pitch in this 
melody ; the monotone being its prevalent phrase. The question 
is however, left to the plain, and unargued observation of others ; 
not to be a subject for useles refinement and dispute ; as such, it 
can be of no importance in the Practical Philosophy of Speech. 

It was said in a previous section, that the diatonic melody admits 
ocasionaly into its curent the third, the fifth, and the octave. It 
may be askedj in what maner these intervals, when required by a 
chromatic melody, are engrafted upon it. They have a place in it, 
for the purpose both of plaintive interogation and of emphasis ; 
and are aplied in the folowing maner. 

Plaintivenes being the characteristic of this melodyj when an 
interogative word requires the rise of the octave, fifth, or third, it 
is conclusivej the expresion both of the semitone, and of that wider 
interval should be conjoined. By a direct rise of the interval, 
beyond the limit of the semitone, the plaintive expresion would 
be lost. These two aparently incompatible efects therefore can be 
united on one sylable, for the purpose of chromatic interogation or 
for emphasisj only by leading the voice in the form of a wave, 
thru the upward into the downward semitone on the apointed 
sylable; and from the extremity of this downward vanish, con- 
tinuing the upward concrete of the octave, fifth, or third, as the 
intended interogation, or the emphasis may require ; thus forming 
what we caled in the second section, a double-unequal wave. 
When -the peculiar keennes ascribed to the octave is recolected, it 
must at once be suposedj it is rarely found among the signs of 
semitonic interogation; the less impresive third or fifth being 
comonly used for this purpose. Perhaps the Reader may not here 
require an ilustration of the chromatic melody, by the staff. The 
precision I have endeavored to give to the terms of this subject 
will it is hoped, enable him to comprehend it without delineation, 
or to mark the tablature for himself.* . 

* I here give place to the Header ; for surely, by a knowledge of our maner 
of ilustration, he can easily draw the apropriate symbols. 

It is the great recomendation of a System of Elocution, derived from the 



288 THE CHROMATIC 

The cadence of a chromatic melody is made by a peculiar con- 
struction of the triad. 

The Eeader on experiment will find, there is no other means 
for reaching the full and satisfactory pause of discourse, on three 
distinct sylables, than that of the diatonic cadence, formed by the 
radical descent of three whole tones, as noted in the first and 
second diagrams of the cadence, in the eighth section. Conse- 
quently the chromatic triad must be made by a similar radical 
descent ; for a downward triad of three semitones would make no 
more than a tone and a half. But in the chromatic melody, the 
concrete pitch or vanish of these radicals* which descend by three 
whole tonesj is made thru the space of a semitone ; and the plain- 
tive character of the melody is thereby comunicated to its close. 

It is to be remarked here, that a sentence requiring the chro- 
matic intonation, may sometimes be terminated by the plain dia- 
tonic triad, whether the close is made on separate, or on conjoined 
constituents; and further, that unimportant words and short 
quantities in a chromatic sentence, may receve a radical and 
vanishing whole tone, without destroying the plaintive expresion ; 
provided the semitone is heard on all acented, and long quantities : 
tho more com only the short and unacented sylables bear the rapid 
semitonic concrete. 

The forms of the Diatonic cadence, which may be ocasionaly 
aplied to a chromatic melody, are described in the eighth section. 
I here consider the cadence that bears a plaintive expresion. 

pure and living Fountain of investigated Nature, whence every clear and 
useful stream of knowledge flowsj that its efective ways and means may be 
recorded, and its available benefit difused and perpetuated. But it is worthy 
of notice on this subject, as on most others, that exactnes of science, either 
from the confident quietude of its progres, or its freedom from ill-tempered 
controversy, has always been the least sought, if not the last desired, where 
they cannot see their personal interest in it, by the mass of even the so-caled 
wiser part of mankind. And certainly, it is not a little remarkable, in re- 
garding all the Five Modes of the voicej that Pitch, with its exact intervals 
of vocal Intonation, ever unalterable in nature, and the only one precisely 
describable under definite forms and degrees^ should be that particular Mode, 
of the Five, which has been, and still is declared not only to be unknown, 
but to be beyond the reach of future discovery. And all this, because some- 
body first said so ; and then every folowing individual of the earles and 
unthinking Flock said so, after him. 



MELODY OF SPEECH. 289 

The chromatic cadence may be made on a single long sylable ; 
or it may be alottecl to two sylables j or the space of its descent 
may be divided between three. 

When the three vocal constituents are joined severaly to three 
separate sylables, the close is made by taking the radicals, at the 
interval of a whole tone sucesively in descent ; and by giving to 
each of the first two constituents, the rising vanish of a semitone ; 
and to the last the feeble downward vanish of the diatonic close. 
This is exemplified by the following diagram ; where the vanish, 
and the upward change of radical pitch in the curent melody, are 
both to be taken as a semitone ; and the downward radical, either as 
a whole tone or a semitone ; for I leave this as a questionable point. 



Pit — ty the sor rows of a poor old 


man. 


rd d 4 * * d * * 4 


|_.w W ^ ^ ^ w W ^ 



It is true, the last constituent may terminate with a downward 
semitone ; or may rise thru a semitone, and then in continuation 
descend concretely below the pitch of its radical; carrying the 
plaintive expresion on the unequal direct wave, to the very close. 
In this case however, the perception of the cadence will not be 
so complete as when made acording to the above notation. 

The chromatic triad is also made, by continuing the rising 
semitone into a wave, and carrying its downward concrete into the 
full body of the suceding radical : or otherwise by the downward 
concrete, meeting the radical, but not coalescing with it. In 
the latter case only, can the radical receve an abrupt fulnes. A 
cadence is therefore more complete, with the radicals thus strongly 
marked ; as in the following diagram : 




When the plaintive cadence is restricted to two sylables, they 
may be conected in like maner, by the wave of the semitone on 
the first constituent of the triad, continued downward to the last; 



290 THE CHROMATIC 

either by carying the downward concrete into the full body of its 
radical, or by its only meeting, but not coalescing with it ; which 
case is here ilustrated : 

A poor old man. 



The Reader can draw for himself, two diagrams, in other re- 
spects similar to the above, but with the downward line enlarging 
into the radicals, as it joins them, for the coalescing form : in 
which case there will be a sweling fulnes of voice, at the place of 
the radicals, without a break in the line. 

There may be a chromatic descent on a single long sylable. 
This should never be used in corect speech, except for some 
special design of expresion, unconected with the cadence. To dis- 
tinguish it, as a chromatic close, from the feeble diatonic cadence, 
it is necesary, by the previous rise of a semitone, to give it a plain- 
tive character. The continuation of this rising semitone into a 
downward terminative concrete forming an unequal direct wave, 
may have the efect of a close j but it has at the same time, a 
whining intonation, altogether foreign to the desirable and apro- 
priate character of the chromatic cadence. 

There is still another form of the Chromatic close, resembling 
the skipping, or false cadence of the diatonic melody. It consists 
of a concrete semitone on the antepenult sylable, and an imediate 
discrete descent by the radical pitch to the final constituent of the 
triad ; omiting the second altogether. We do not need a diagram 
of this form ; it is shown by the above example of notation, sup- 
osing it to be without the descending concrete, which there meets 
the final constituent. It is rarely used as a close; and only when 
a peculiar emphasis may be required on the last word of the 
sentence. 

As the diatonic cadence, so the chromatic, has different degrees 
of repose ; and these depend on its construction. That entire 
consumation, required at the period of discourse, is efected by 
the triad form in the first of the above notations. The second 
which is still a triad, with its three constituents meeting, but not 



MELODY OF SPEECH. 291 

coalescing by the downward vanish, has as strongly marked a char- 
acter as the first. The coalescing form denotes less repose ; there 
being no abrupt fulnes of the radical, the cadence will be less im- 
presive, for it is this conspicuous display of a descent by radical 
pitch which produces the remarkable efect of a vocal period. The 
third construction represented above, is the feeble form of the 
chromatic cadence ; for being upon only two sylables, it has not 
the full efect of the downward change of radical pitch when made 
on three ; and therefore falls short of the expresion required for 
a satisfactory close. 



In concluding this history of the five rising concrete and discrete 
intervals, and of their uses in elocution, I have only to add that 
the Fourth, Sixth, and Seventh may be employed for interogative, 
and emphatic expresion, respectively similar to that of the third, 
fifth, and octave. But the third, fifth, and octave, severaly adja- 
cent to those other intervals, are by some constitution of the ear, 
more easily recognized as definite points, on the instrumental scale, 
and in the discrete movements of the human voice. On this 
acount the enumeration in the preceding sections has been limited 
to the semitone, second, third, fifth, and octave of the diatonic 
scale. I have not particularly inquired into the character of the 
remaining fourth, sixth, and seventh; nor of any fractional ex-' 
tensions of the concrete of the other five ; belevingj they only 
expres unimportant variations in degree, of the states of mind 
conveyed by those we have particularly described. 

In all the foregoing descriptions of the forms and efects of 
the various concretes, they have been represented as bounded by 
fixed degrees of the scale. Yet it has just been said, that besides 
the second, third, fifth, and octave, other intermediate variations 
of these intervals may be used, as vocal synonyms in speech. 
This leads to an inquiry^ how far any definitely marked extent 
should be asigned to the several intervals. It is therefore necesary 
to be more particular on this point ; and to answer my own ques- 
tion 3 whether the atenuated close of the vanish does impres the 
ear with the exact place of a musical interval on the scale. I 



292 THE CHEOMATIC 

might scarcely have noticed this subject, had not the possibility of 
measuring, at all, the intonations of speech, been almost univer- 
sally denied ; and had I not thot this old prejudice, even after 
what has been shown, might when driven to its corner, make a 
desperate defense, by some unecesary refinement on this very ques- 
tion. I do not say, the stops, as they may be caled, of the vanish, 
if even suficiently exact for all practical purposes, as I beleve 
them to bej are so strongly impresed on the ear, as those marked 
with a precise note, either by song or on instruments. And altho 
a want of measured acuracy in the equable concrete, may not be 
as readily perceved, as in these two cases, still, great exaetnes on 
this point, is not required in speech. In music, with its precise 
notes of the discrete scale, false intonation is imediately obvious, 
even in the sucesions of melody ; and in the coexistent notes of 
harmony, the efect is still more remarkable. But speech is a solo, 
as well as a concrete performance, and therefore, any slight want 
of acuracy at the point of the vanish, even if perceptible, is never- 
theles, under my observation, of very little consequence. If our 
States of mind were marked in degree, by nice and palpable dis- 
tinctions, it would be proper to expres them, by like gradations in 
the voice. Still, as in the gramatical variation of adjectives, the 
three degrees suficiently distinguish, for comon ocasions, the count- 
ies shades of comparisonj so with the interogative intervals, a dif- 
erence of third, fifth and octave, is suficient for present practical 
use of their vocal expresion. 

The Second it has been shown, has what we call a plain diatonic 
character, apropriate to narative, or unimpasioned discourse. It 
may then be asked, whether a want of precision, in marking the 
interval would destroy that character. By my observation, it 
would not ; provided the variation is slight, and not diminished 
one half, down to a semitone, nor extended half a tone, up to a 
minor third ; the former producing a plaintive expression, and the 
latter, as a fault, being inadmisible into speech. Should the voice, 
in executing this and various other intervals, even excede, or fall 
short of the exact points of the scale, by any minute degree, let 
others more fastidious, decide the question of its impropriety. To 
my ear however, for all the precision required by this case, there 
is in the educated voice, no deviating intonation at the close of the 



MELODY OF SPEECH. 293 

vanish, that would ever mar, when all else is right, the purpose of 
a corect and elegant elocution. 

And here we may observe, that the Enharmonic quarter-tone 
of six parts, the semitone being twelve^ as proportionaly aranged 
in the Greek scale, described in our first section^ can have no place, 
or if place, no efect, in corect or natural speech. I do not how- 
ever, say, that in the random eforts of the voice, some concrete or 
discrete interval, upward or downward and difering by a quarter- 
tone or any other fraction, greater or less, from those we have asigned 
to speech, may notj in the iregularities, and sometimes even in the 
intended proprieties of uterance, be employed : but we must now 
perceve enough of the great circle of speech, to satisfy us, that for 
a practical, and imnietaphysical system of the voice, these trans- 
cendental degrees of intonation, for any of our intents, do not 
deserve a further notice. 

Admiting absolute precision of interval to be a matter of im- 
portance, the comand over it might be easily acquired ; for the 
vanish cannot be atenuated beyond the ability of the ear to measure 
it. The place in pitch, of a prolonged note of song, with what is 
caled a diminuendo, is still conizable, as long as it is heard ; and 
to a studious observer it is equaly so in the vanish, or diminuendo 
of a concrete interval of speech ; tho the state of mind is con- 
veyed more forcibly by the louder voice. How far this acuracy 
of intonation may be required in speech, when w T e shall have 
aranged the present chaos of the Human Intelect, into some efica- 
cious system of exact perception, with no dishonest purpose, must 
be determined by time. From the past, present, and prospective 
disorderly state of our thots and pasions, I have, in this esay, 
probably asigned more definite degrees, and forms of intonation, 
either true or false, than will ever be required by the greater part 
of oratorical mankind. 

If this trifling mater is realy indeterminable, let it be excluded, 
with all like refinements, from what should be a Practical, not a 
Contentious system of elocution. Those who have so dogmat- 
icaly aserted the imposibility of measuring, what they call the 
( tones of the voice/ could not have refered merely to the point of 
exactness here under consideration. For had the renowned Adam 
Smithj who, as one of the number, may fairly represent themj 



294 THE CHROMATIC MELODY OF SPEECH. 

only caried his sagacious powers of inquiry into the subject of the 
human voice, he would have clearly observed, that with so many 
satisfying proprieties and beauties, in the natural system of speech, 
the determination of this question is of little, if any importance 
in the extended views of an efective elocution.* 

* I regret to have been obliged to notice in this place, what our system re- 
gards as a fatal eror in the writings of this able and elegant Observer : and 
altho difering widely from him on the subject before us, I am hapy to pay the 
due respect to his character as a Philosopher, in pausing for a moment, to find 
a suficient cause, if not an apology, for his eror, by inquiring^ why, with his 
eminent powers of analysis and of arangement, he did not closely aply them, 
to the investigation of Speech, when he had once thot it worthy of his gen- 
eral reflections. Adam Smith, with his means for wide survey, and for ilu- 
minating definition and division, and when triumphantly aplying them, to 
gather into a regular system of Political Economy, those scatered facts and 
principles, on the wealth of nations^ which many a statesman must have thot, 
as ireducible to order, as the suposcd imeasurable and indefinable constit- 
uents of the speaking voices has, after a purposed inquiry, left us, what I 
unwilingly record of himj his undisguised belief in the deep or endles con- 
cealment of the forms of Intonation. 

In the short and last paragraph of his ' Reflections on the Imitative Arts,' 
he saysj 'As the sounds or tones of the singing voice can be ascertained or 
apropriatedj [that is, put to proper use') while those of the speaking voice can- 
not ; the former are capable of being noted or recorded^ (that is, of being rep- 
resented by symbols, or described by words}) while the latter can-not..' I do not 
here, by verbal controversy, meet the eror of his belief; having thruout this 
volume, furnished the argument, in its substantial facts. But as he might 
himself probably have anticipated our record of those facts, bad he trusted 
to his own resources^ I shall endeavor to show, that by folowing-up his method 
of inquiry and explanation, why he did not. 

To prepare for the above final declaration that the ' tones ; of the speaking 
voice cannot be ascertained, he begins with remarking^ 'A person may sing 
afectedly, by endeavoring to please by sounds and tones which are unsuitable 
to the nature of the song :' and again, ' The disagreeable afectation (in song) 
apears to consist always, in atempting to please, not by a proper, but by an 
improper modulation of the voice.-' Here is a plain statement of the cause of 
the impropriety of afectation ; it is unsuitable to the ' nature ' or purpose • of 
the song :' and it aplies equaly to all intonation ; but Mr. Smith, unfortu- 
nately stoping short in the just course of his investigation, refers it exclusively 
to that of song. He then procedes to state, how we know the disagreeable and 
afected ' sounds or tones ' of song to be improper. 

It having been, as he remarks, early ascertained j I report his meaning} that 
strings or chords of diferent lengths, or tensions, do in their respective vibra- 
tions, bear a measurable proportion to each others the several sounds or notes 
of these vibrating chords, and the intervals between them, become measur- 



DOWNWARD RADICAL AND VANISHING MOVEMENT. 295 

SECTION XX. 

Of the Downward Radical and Vanishing Movement. 

The functions of pitch hitherto described, are performed princi- 
pally by a rising progres of the concrete, and of the radical change. 

In an early page of this esay we learned, that the voice takes a 
reverse direction ; that the radical movement, opening with fulnes 

able, and by terms, asignable for all their proper purposes. With this precise 
discrimination, and a coresponding nomenclature, it was easy to compare the 
relations of chordal, or instrumental sounds, with those of the singing voice, 
to name them, and to describe those suitable or not, to their purpose j and 
therefore proper or improper in song. 

So far, the course of the explanation is in Mr. Smith's usualy strict and 
elementary maner, clear and instructive; and had he continued in this path 
of observation and experiment, it would have led, by a similar proces, to a 
recognition of the intervals of Speech-; and then, easily to their full develop- 
ment. From that path however, as all others had done, he turned aside; 
droped the directive wand of analogy ; and instead of likening the intervals 
of speech to those of song, and then ascertaining the truth by experiment; 
just as the intervals of song had at first been thought, and then proved to be 
like those of measurable chordsj he on the contrary, endeavored to showj 
there is no perceptible similarity between the intervals of speech and of song ; 
having aparently been misled, in this way. At the moment he turned from 
the path of analogy and proof, the self-dependent habit of his mind deserted 
him, to conform with a traditional authority ; and he was told by all around 
himj First : That the ' sounds or tones ' of the singing voice are more numer- 
ous, more distinct, and of greater extent than those of speech ; which as 
a groping notion, crosing the onward track of truth, confused, at the start 
the scent of inquiry. And Second : That while the former can be measured 
by the constant proportions of musical chordsj the latter can-not; which 
authority, put the chase so entirely at fault, as to end all hopes of the pur- 
suit. These opinions having been adopted by Mr. Smith, it necesarily never 
occured to him to endeavor to form a sort of experimental and comparative 
equation between the measurable intervals of song, and the unknown and 
required intervals of speech^ asserted universaly, and beleved by himself, to 
be imperceptible. This by his own, and by general belief justifiably closed 
the investigation ; and here Mr. Smith left it : having sought, as it would 
seem, only some asignable interval, however minute, between the indefinitely 
small increments of the fluxionary concrete of speechj an inquiry of no prac- 
tical importance^ instead of comparing, the obvious interval between the 
begining and the end of that concrete, and the discrete intervals between these 



296 THE DOWNWARD RADICAL 

at a given place on the scale, descends thru its destined- interval, 
with the same equable concrete structure and diminishing force 
which characterize the upward vanish. We must now consider 
the varieties of form in the downward concrete, the ocasions of its 
use, and the character of its expresion. 

The downward progres of the voice is made in all the intervals 
of the scale. In like maner with the rise, the descent is both by 
a concrete movement, and by a discrete change or skip of radical 
pitch. The characteristic efect of the descent, either concretely, 
or by discrete skipj the several intervals, may be learned by the 
folowing experiments. 

Let the Reader express himself with astonishment, on the ex- 
clamatory phrase, well done; asuming the first word at a high 
pitch j bringing down the last concretely from that hight, on its 
prolonged quantity j and utering the phrase as if it were the close 
of a sentence. Should the intonation on the word done, be meas- 
ured by the scale, it will in his yet unskilful atempt, exemplify 
the downward concrete Octave, or near it. Again, let the inter- 
jection, heigh-ho, be made with a degree of emphasis that may 
throw these two sylables on the extremes of the compas of the 
natural voice. The transition from the elevated pitch of heigh, 
to the inferior place of ho, will be by a discrete or skiping descent. 
This transition, when measured by the scale, ilustrates the down- 
ward Discrete or radical pitch of the octave, or near it. 

The Downward Fifth may in like maner be distinguished, both 
in its concrete pitch and its discrete radical change, by respectively 

two extremes, with the concrete interval of song, and the discrete, of the 
musical scale ; for a knowledge of their identity would have opened a view 
of causes and effects, thruout the then deep mystery of Speech. Mr. Smith's 
adopted authority prevented his making this simple comparison and conclu- 
sion ; and he unfortunately, and most unlike himself, left the subject where 
he found it. If instead of being satisfied with the argumentative diference 
between these two cases, he had only droped his ' reasoning ' and raised the 
Baconian Kite of experiment, his verbal conformity with the learned rotine 
of the schools, would on the first flash of observation have been surprised, and 
his candid discernment philosophicaly delighted, by the discovered identity 
of so many of the measurable constituents of music and of Speech. 

Let any one who is confirmed in the creed of this volume, read the article 
here quoted, and he will be struck by the eror and the evil of an individual 
who can observe and think, relying implicitly on a world of those who do not. 



AND VANISHING MOVEMENT. 297 

aplying them to the words of the preceding examplesj but with 
less emphatic force, and with a less striking intonation. 

The concrete Descent of the Third may be heard, by pronouncing 
the word No, as the last word of a sentence ; observing to give it 
some length, and to exclude every expresion, except the simple 
indication of the cadence. The downward Radical pitch or skip 
of the third, may be exemplified by pronouncing the phrase made 
an attack, as a full close ; giving the sylables, made an at, in the 
monotone, and making the satisfactory close on tack. For, the 
sylable, at, being the first constituent of the triad; and by its short 
quantity, incapable of completing the cadence by a descent of the 
slow concrete, the voice of necessity leaps over the place of the 
second constituent, and closes on tack, in the proper point of the 
third. 

The effect of the Downward concrete Second or tone may be 
heard on the last constituent of the diatonic triad ; and the radical 
change of the second, in the descent of the constituents of the 
same cadencej for its radicals succede each other by the downward 
diference of a tone. 

The downward concrete of the Semitone was described in the 
last section, as plaintively obvious in the vocal transition from the 
eighth to the seventh place of the, scale. If the downward change 
of Radical pitch, in a chromatic melody, is like that of its cadencej 
which however, in the last section, was stated as doubtfulj it folows 
that we have no instance in curent speech, of the discrete downward 
semitone. But we leave this for future observers. 

If the Reader is by this time, expert in ascending both concretely 
and discretely, every interval of the scale, he may, after ascending, 
imediately return by the same interval, with the impresion of its 
extent upon his ear ; and by practice on all the intervals, in this 
way become familiar with the diferent degrees and characters of 
the downward movement, both in its concrete and discrete forms. 

We have considered the downward movement on long quanti- 
ties ; and altho like the rising progres, it may be rapidly performed 
on imutable sylables ; yet when the expresion of a downward in- 
terval is required on them, the transition as with the upward, is 
generaly made by the change of radical pitch. 

The expresive powers of the downward radical and vanish will 
20 



298 DOWNWARD RADICAL AND VANISHING MOVEMENT. 

be asigned, in a future consideration of the particular intervals of 
the scale. As a general remark on its character, it may be said, 
in contrast to the interogative efect of the rising Third, Fifth, 
and Octave, that the downward progres thru these intervals, both 
concretely and by radical pitch, denotes positive afirmation ; di- 
rectly the reverse of doubt, implied in a question. Some other 
inquirer may hereafter, more acurately refer this expresion of the 
downward concrete, to a general class of phenomena in vocal science ; 
and satisfy the demands of philosophy. I cannot however, with- 
hold the question^ yet wishing to be cautious with mere analogical 
inference j whether the positivenes may arise from its conjoining 
with an emphatic import, a certain degree of the decisive char- 
acter of the cadence ; for this seems to preclude the expectation of 
further doubt or reply, by a satisfactory repose of the ultimate in- 
tonation on a finished meaning or thot. In suport of this, let us 
bring to mind, that the replications of doubtful argument, from a 
submissive courtesy between speakers, are not so often marked by 
complete cadences as the decisive character in many of the phrases 
would otherwise bear. Yet we know, that when asertions become 
authoritative from truth, or dogmatic from opinion, the closing 
descent of the cadence is freely employed as the definite seal of 
self-confident affirmation. 

After all however, Truth, the strict monitor of science, reproves 
us for our conjectures, and alows us here, only to set-forth this 
new instance of consistency in the ordinations of nature : for as 
the mental state of inquiry is contrary to that of asured declara- 
tionj so in the instinct of the voice expresing these oposite states, 
the very oposite courses of rise, and of fall, are employed as their 
respective intonations. 

The downward movement, both in its concrete, and its discrete 
form, when used for emphasis, will be particularly described in a 
future section. It is perhaps as impresive on the ear, as the 
upward movement in its usual forms, but not in its piercing de- 
gree. Amazement, wonder, surprise, and admiration, when not 
conjoined with an interogative meaning, generaly asume this form 
of expresion ; the extent of the interval being proportional to their 
respective degrees of energy. The downward movement difering 
from the upward, only by its taking a diferent direction, we may 



THE DOWNWARD OCTAVE. 299 

look for a like characteristic construction in each. The same 
explosive fulnes should distinguish the radical ; the same equable 
movement, its descent ; and the same delicate diminution, its final 
vanish into silence. 

After these general remarks on the subject, we procede to the 
history of the particular intervals of the downward concrete. 



SECTION XXI. 

Of the Interval of the Downward Octave. 

The concrete Downward Octave, in adition to the expresion, 
ascribed generaly to the downward movement, conveys in the 
coloquial uses of the voice, the vivacity of facetious surprise, as 
in the instance of the phrase well done, given above. It is a sign 
of the pasionative state of mindj and in the above example, is the 
very picture of amazement, and so to speak, raises the brow and 
opens the eye of the voice. In its more dignified uses, there is 
the highest degree of admiration, astonishment, and comand, either 
alone or united with other mental states. The astonishment and 
positivenes expresed by this interval, may coexist with the com- 
placency of mirth, with the repugnance of fear, contempt, hatred, 
and with almost any state of mind not incompatible with that of 
astonishment, and comand. For tho these states have other signs 
in expresion, yet when they go with this high degree of astonish- 
ment, the downward octave is the true and only sign of the 
combination. 

In the following lines, from Milton's fifth book, the emphatic 
sylable of the word, enormous, may receve the downward Octave, 
as the sign of admiration, or of astonishment, just as the Reader 
may choose to regard it. 

For Nature here 
Wanton'd as in her prime, and play'd at will 
Her virgin fancies, pouring forth more sweet, 
"Wild above rule or art : enormous blis. 



300 THE DOWNWARD OCTAVE. 

As the same interval represents (liferent mental conditions, it 
may be inquiredj what modification of its structure may be neces- 
ary. It was shown in the second section, that the concrete move- 
ment, in its upward, and in its downward direction, bears with 
distinguishable audibility, aditional force or stres on the begining, 
the midle, or the end of its progres thru a prolonged quantity. 
The aplication of a diferent stres to the downward octave, vari- 
ously modifies its character. On the radical, it denotes a high 
degree of mirthful wonder. On the midle of its course, by a 
swell at that place, the wonder becomes more serious and even 
repulsive. On the lower extreme, reversing thus the natural 
structure of the radical and vanish, it increases the degree of the 
repulsion, and mingles with it some slight expresion of anger and 
of scorn. This characteristic asigned to the octave, might at once 
asure us that it is of rare ocurence. It may be found occasionally 
in the intensity of coloquial excitement, and in the fervor of the 
drama: but rarely perhaps, in the course of narative or plain 
description ; the strained energy of its expresion scarcely finding 
a place in melody, if not acompanied by wider downward inter- 
vals, or wider waves. The preceding example of the Octave if 
there aplicable, may however, be taken as an exception. 

For an ilustration of the downward Radical Pitch of the 
octave ; there is, in the first diagram of the fourteenth section, a 
notation of the fall of the voice, an octave from the uper curent 
of melodyj suposed to be on imutable sylablesj to an indefinite 
quantity, for the purpose of rising again by a concrete octave. 
This downward radical pitch has the same expresion as the down- 
ward concrete octave ; and is employed in skiping from imutable 
sylables, in phrases of emphatic astonishment, admiration, and 
comand. 



—»►►©©©<♦ 



THE DOWNWARD FIFTH. 301 

SECTION XXII. 

Of the Interval of the Downward Fifth. 

The last described interval variously denotes a quaint familiarity 
and an emphatic force of wonder or comand. The Downward 
concrete Fifth has in many respects a similar expresion; but it 
clothes its agreeable surprise, admiration, and authority, with 
greater dignity than the octave. This interval is often used on 
imperative phrases. Its concrete, like that of the octave, may be 
modified in meaning, by diferent aplications of stres. 

In the folowing pasages from Milton's fifth book, the words, 
own, himself, all, fairest, and three, severaly marked, may for their 
emphatic distinction, receve the downward fifth. 

Mean while our primitive great sire, to meet 
His God-like guest, walks forth, without more train. 
Acompanied than with his own complete 
Perfections: in himself was all his state. 



But Eve 
Undeck'd save with herself, more lovely fair 
Than Wood-ISTymph, or the fairest Godess feign'd 
Of three that in mount Ida naked strove. 

When the Queen says to Hamletj 

If it be, [that is, if death be the common lot] 
Why seems it so particular with thee ? 

Hamlet returns^ 

Seems, Madam, nay it is! I know not seems. 

The word is, here represents the earnest surprise of the Prince, 
at the misconception of his real condition. And his solemn state 
of mind, which rejects, with indignation, the profanity of the 
suposition, of any formal show in the deep reality of his grief, 



302 THE DOWNWARD FIFTH. 

cannot be expresed by the simple radical and vanish. There is a 
light surprise in this form of the concrete, unsuitable to the gravity 
of his reverentive state. If the voice is sweled to a greater stres 
as it descends, the severe and dignified conviction of the speaker 
becomes at once remarkable. The intonation of this line without, 
however, representing the sweling stres on the falling fifthj may 
be thus delineated : 

Seems, Ma dam, nay it is ! I know not seems. 



^\w^r 



Here a rising third, or the most moderate form of interogative 
expresion, is set to the first word : for it includes a slight degree 
of surprised inquiry. The suceding clause, containing a positive 
afirmation, has the downward fifth on is; and the whole diagram 
is calculated to show the oposite powers of expresion in the rising, 
and the faling intervals. In a future section, it will be shown 
why the radical of this emphatic downward movement is set, as 
here represented, so far above the line of the curent melody. 

The Discrete transition of the faling fifth has the same expresion 
as its concrete form. It is used on sylables that do not bear the 
prolongation required for a slow concrete ; the two extremes of the 
interval, as in all cases of discrete transition, either rising or faling, 
being on two diferent sylables. The folowing notation exemplifies 
the radical change or skip of the faling fifth : 



Yet 


Bru tus 


says 


he 


was 


am — biti ous. 




d~ 


df 


4 


rf" 


+ * 


«f 


SiW 


w 




~9 




_ 










m 



This line, as it seems to me, requires the intonation of grave 
surprise rather than that of contemptuous contradiction, with 
which it is sometimes read; and this I have endeavored to express, 
by the radical skip of a fifth, between the sylables of Bru-tus, and 
of biti-ous. The craft of Antony's oration, in Julius Ccesar, turns 



THE DOWNWARD THIRD. 303 

upon the design to excite odium against the conspirators, by a 
favorable representation of Caesar's virtues, rather than by the 
coloring of their crimes. And tho in the well known sarcasm, 
they are reported to be ' honorable men/ certainly not with the 
least aprobation of the title ; still, the vocal curl of sneer, some- 
times heard on the words just quoted, is inapropriate and afected. 
At least it is so, in the early part of the oration : and when at last 
the speaker is encouraged to a bolder style of argument and lan- 
guage, it is that of anger and revenge ; and these waste no time 
in the winding course of contemptuous intonation. But whatever 
may be said of other parts of the speech, I must claim for the 
above sentence, those downward intervals which expres the sur- 
prise of the orator, that any one could so violently reverse the just 
conclusions to be drawn from the enumerated acts of Caesar : leav- 
ing the audience to infer from this surprise, that some other than 
ordinary or honest motives must have influenced Brutus to make 
the charge of ambition against him. Should the line be read in 
the comon diatonic melody, with the diference of a tone only in 
the radical pitch of its emphatic words, it would report merely 
what Brutus had saidj without the least indication of the state of 
mind I have ascribed to it, and endeavored to ilustrate by the 
preceding diagram. 



SECTION XXIII. 

Of the Interval of the Downward Third, 

The Downward Concrete Third has the expresion of the fifth, 
in a more moderate degree. 

Dignity of vocal character, like that of personal gesture, con- 
sists not only in the slownes of time, and the restraint of forceful 
efort, but in a limitation within the widest range of movement. 
And as there is more composure in an interogative rise by the 
thirdj so the expresion of authority and admiration is most sub- 
dued in the rise of this downward interval. 



304 



THE INTERVAL OF 



One remarkable efect of the concrete descent of the third, on a 
single sylable of long quantity, is shown at the end of a member, 
or of a clause, containing a terminated thotj altho it may not be 
marked by the punctuation of a period. This use of the third 
was noticed and ilustrated in the eighth section, and there de- 
scribed as the feeble Cadence. Its character is not quite definite : 
for while indicating a close at its place, it does not altogether pre- 
vent a further continuation. No one on hearing this cadence, 
would supose the discourse to be necesarily finished. 

As the rising third is sometimes used for emphasis alone, inde- 
pendently of its interogative importj so the faling third may be 
employed without expresing surprise or comand, soley for varying 
the efect of intonation. This may be ilustrated by the folowing 
diagram : 



None 


but 


the 


brave I 


None 


but 


the 


brave \ 




«f 


aT 




if 




& 


A 


¥ 


qp 


igp 


& 


w 


4 


W 


\ 



None but the brave 



de- 



-serve the fair. 



P^-tf^-y j^-#—4L 



Altho no inquiry is conveyed by these lines, we have the rising 
interval of the third on one of the emphatic words. Yet there is 
a degree of admiration in the case, that may be expresed by this 
upward third. And it will be shown hereafter that all emphatic 
words, whatever other states of mind they may excite, do convey 
something of the admirable. On this ground then the emphatic 
repetitions of the word brave might receve the same interval. The 
intonation is here varied by seting the plain rising second to the 
first brave , the downward third to the second, and the rising third 
to the last : this, together with the faling third on the word none, 
in its third place, does produce at least variety. I have described 
and represented these intonations as simple concretes; but the 
emphatic words being long quantities, they require for a full 
efect, their apropriate form of the wave. Speakers who are not 
aware of the resources of intonation, and who cannot therefore 



THE DOWNWARD THIRD. 305 

skilfuly comand it, endeavor to atain a desirable variety in these 
lines, by a transfer of the emphasis of force ; and aply it sucesively 
to none and but and brave. This I know, was, and perhaps still is 
the formula for these lines, in all our Schools and Collegesj by the 
authority of English Elocution. Regarding here the aparent pur- 
pose of the poet, and the consistent design of vocal expresion, this 
variation is altogether inadmisible. The distinction made in this 
case, by aplying stress to diferent words, in each repetition, gives 
diferent meanings to the phrase. But reiteration is the expresive 
sign of an acumulative energy of thot or pasion ; and never of its 
change. The atempt therefore to vary the meaning of this phrase, 
which must be identical under any change of emphasis, ofends 
against both dignity and truth, and betrays a limited power over 
the ample means for vocal variety. A full comand of quantity, 
and of the numerous forms of expresion, renders it easy to releve 
the ear from monotony, without misrepresenting the author : for, 
if these lines were a prompting of poetry, and not like some other 
parts of the Ode, a monotonous trick of words, the purpose must 
have been intended, under any mental climax, to be one and the 
same, in all the repetitions. 

In the above notation, I have not ilustrated the uses of time, 
force, the tremor, and other forms of intonation, which are here 
available, and give aditional means for variety. 

The downward radical pitch of the third is employed for em- 
phasis, on imutable sylables. But it has a particular use in efect- 
ing an impresive consumation of the close of melody. In the 
eighth section it was shown, that diferent species of the cadence 
denote various degrees of repose; the second tripartite form, in 
which each of the radicals with its downward vanish, is heard dis- 
tinctly in succesive descent, being the most marked indication of 
the period. It is posible however, to increase the characteristic of 
this form, by aditional means. When a melody is in the higher 
range of pitch, a gradual descent of the curent, as it aproaches the 
cadence, may be properly employed for that purpose. Yet it is 
more elegant and impresive, to aply the downward radical change 
of a third, with either a rising or faling concrete, acording to the 
effect desired, on some sylable preceding the close ; as in the 
folowing notation : 



306 THE DOWNWARD THIRD. 

Through E den took their sol i ta ry way. 



I: 



4- 4 4-4 &jCK 



iZZZZ_=^5 



When the whole of this line is read, with only the. radical change 
of a second j the cadence with its three descending radicals and con- 
cretes, does mark the fulnes of a period. By making the radical 
skip of a downward third, from den to took, we have that warning 
of the period, or that note of preparation, which produces the 
uterly reposing conclusion, required by the audience, and due by 
the reader, at the termination of Paradise Lost. The last line of 
Pope's translation of the Iliad may be read to the same notation. 
4 And peaceful slept the mighty Hector's shade.' It does not apear, 
in this form of the Cadence, that the sylable should be emphatic, 
except for its preparatory purpose ; or that it should be, in diferent 
sentences, at any fixed distance from the cadence. Nor is a choice 
forbiden, between words more or less removed from the close, in 
the same sentence. In the two preceding examples of iambic lines, 
it falls on the cesura of a like foot, in each. In the Mowing, from 
the final Benediction of the Church-service, it ocurs imediately 
preceding the Triad. ' The felowship of the Holy Ghost, be with 
us all evermore.' In the fulfilment of Elisha's imprecation on 
Gehazi, it may be placed either on the sixth or ninth sylable be- 
fore the cadence, and perhaps on both. * And he went out from 
his presence, a leper as white as snow.' It is to be remarked here, 
that a concrete downward third or fifth may serve the same termi- 
native purpose; and that in each case this emphatic distinction 
should not be given to a trivial word that does not deserve it. 

Other cadences denote, in various degrees, the conclusion of a 
particular thot. This Prepared Cadence, if we may so call it, 
implies j the subject itself of a paragraph, a chapter, or a volume, 
is finished. I leave future observers, to perceve other phenomena 
on this subject, and to lay down rules for construction and for 
choice. 

In the eighth section, five forms of the cadence are named. 
The Prepared, which is however, no more than a stresful adition 
to the close, may be united with each of these, if we may perhaps 



THE DOWNWARD SECOND AND SEMITONE. 307 

except the feeble cadence ; but its purpose is only strictly fulfiled 
when it is placed before the second triad, with a downward con- 
crete on each of its constituents. All the forms of the cadence 
are severaly required by speakers, to give a just character and 
variety to the close. 

It is not expected, the Eeader will be able at once to distinguish 
and to aply all the varieties of the cadence. Some of them how- 
ever, cannot be mistaken. The prepared form of the faling triad, 
is the most complete ; and this is clearly separable from what was 
called the feeble cadence, or the faintest indication of the period. 
With atention to our history, no ear will, on exemplification, con- 
found the efect of the two tripartites, and the feeble, with that of 
the prepared cadence. 

I have little to say of the Minor third ; the expresion of its 
downward, like that of its upward concrete, is plaintive. As my 
ear informs me, it is only heard as a fault in speech. 



SECTION xxiy. 

Of the Downward Second and Semitone, 

I have classed the Downward Second and Semitone, under the 
same head, on acount of the limited extent of the remarks here 
made upon them. They have a high importance in speech ; and 
this, principaly as downward continuations of their previous rise 
into that form of intonation, caled the Wave. 

A remarkable use of the downward concrete second or tone, is 
as the last constituent of both the diatonic and the chromatic ca- 
dence. It forms the constituent concretes of the faling triad ; and 
is used, tho its effect is not very conspicuous, in the sucesions of 
the diatonic melody, for the purpose of contrast with the rising 
second, which, in the history of that melody was, acording to the 
progresive method of unfolding our subject, given as its sole 
characteristic. 



308 THE DOWNWARD SECOND AND SEMITONE. 

The downward concrete semitone is employed for variety, in the 
curent of a chromatic melody. It is also aplied to the first and 
second constituents of a chromatic cadence ; the radical descent of 
this cadence being by the skip of a whole tone ; and the downward 
vanish on the last or closing constituent, being thru the space of 
that same second or tone. 

In terminating the history of the downward intervals, one can- 
not avoid pausing for a moment, in admiration at the simple forms 
of the few, well-adjusted, and significant signs, discoverable in the 
endles intermingling and suposed complexity, of the constituents 
employed for vocal expresion. Nor can the prophetic eye of 
science and taste well survey these eficient and manageable signs, 
without reaching to some foreknowledge of that Systematic Art of 
Speech, which at some distant day, must be raised upon the new 
and lasting foundation of Analytic Elocution. I have not ex- 
tended the inquiry, nor presumptuously aimed to aply the princi- 
ples founded thereon, to the entire detail of the subject ; being 
contented to encourage others towards a work of greater range and 
precision, by seting before them what is here acomplished, in a 
case of suposed imposibility. For if the Coarse- Art of Popu- 
larity is not now at work, to make the Fine Arts all his own, I 
must hopej there will be some beautiful finishing of that system 
for the ordering of speech, which here seems only just begun. He 
who chooses to folow the path thus opened, may fortunately find 
himself among the first comers to an ungathered field ; a field, un- 
visited and unclaimed, only because it is beleved by the indolent, 
to be baren or inacessible ; or because the eye of iresolute inquiry 
has been turned from the leading star of observation, by the vain 
atractions of theory, and the delusive authority of Names. For 
what more does the phrase, ( genius for discovery '■ mean, than the 
Art of forgeting our personal selves and the praises of othersj and 
looking broadly, closely, and perseveringly at our work ? Too 
many of us, alas ! supose we are doing all these things, when we 
are only closely and perseveringly tracing our narow path to noto- 
riety; and hunting, sharp-scented, yet often at fault, after the 
favorable opinion of mankind. 



THE WAVE OF THE VOICE. 309 

SECTION XXV. 

Of the Wave of the Voice, 

The Wave of the voice, as briefly explained in the second sec- 
tion, is a continuation of the upward into the downward concrete 
movement. We are told by the Greeksj this function was analyt- 
icaly known to them. Yet if science did favor them with this 
initial means, for further increase of knowledge, they were thrift- 
les in the trust, and only hid their talent in the napkin. It is 
noticed by modern writers, particularly by Mr. Steele and Mr. 
Walker, under the term, Circumflex acent. 

As the wave is composed of two oposite courses of the concrete, 
each of which may be of diferent intervals ; and as the direction 
of the voice at its outset, and the number of its flexures may varyj 
the Reader will find in the history of this sign, numerous sub- 
divisions : but still with their details definitely described by the 
terms, of their intervals. 

The Wave is a very frequent sign of expresion, and performs 
important ofices in speech. It therefore becomes him who is wiling 
to turn from the falterings of an instinctive elocution, to the fulnes, 
and precision of scientific rule, not to overlook the subject of the 
wave. 

In order to represent this mater clearly, let the several upward 
and downward movements of the wave, be caled its Constituents. 
The constituents may then be severaly octaves, fifths, thirds, 
seconds and semitones, either in an upward or downward direction. 

Further, as the upward and downward concrete may be of varied 
extent, it folows that the wave may be constituted of an upward 
and downward movement of the same interval ; or these constit- 
uents may difer in extent from each other. It may consist of a 
rising and a faling third conjoined ; or of a rising second continued 
into a faling third. These varied constructions give ocasion for a 
distinction of the wave into Equal, and Unequal. 

It will be found on experiment, that the wave with its first 
constituent ascending, and its second descending, has a diferent 



310 THE WAVE OF THE VOICE. 

expresion from one, with a reverse course of its constituents. Of 
the variations thus produced, let the former case be caled the Direct 
wave, the later the Inverted. 

I have here represented the wave as consisting of only two con- 
stituents. It may have three or even more ; for the Direct may 
have a subsequent rising interval, and the Inverted, a subsequent 
faling one. When there are but two constituents, it may be caled 
the Singlej when three, the Double wave. Should there be more 
than three, as may hapen in rare and peculiar cases, to be pointed 
out presently, the Continued wave. 

These several forms admit of various combinations with each 
other. -The equal and the unequal wave may each be direct and 
inverted, single and double. The double-unequal may have its 
three constituents disimilar j or perhaps two of them, the first and 
second, or second and third, or first and third may be alike, which 
I do not represent on the table. The direct and inverted, may 
each be equal or unequal, single or double. The single and double 
may each be equal or unequal, direct or inverted. 

Upon a diagram, in the second section, there is a notation of 
each of these leading forms of the wave, except the Continued. 
As their several varieties can be easily suposed, and may, from 
the maner of the examples, be drawn by the pupil himself, I shall, 
in the Mowing Tabular views, name, without ilustrating the uses 
of all the posible permutations of their several constituents : re- 
marking here, that a limited number only, of these changes are of 
practical importance in present elocution. 



TABULAR VIEW OF THE WAVE. 



311 





r 




r 


£ f Octave, 
S bb Fifth, 








3 


Direct, 


3 .§ J Third, 






CO 
13 


to 

s 
o 




*jj-2 1 Second, 
.S Semitone, 






f- 


Single, ■ 
















* Octave, 
S bb 1 Fifth, 
fi .5 -j Third, 
*»g 1 Second, 
.ft ! Semitone, 






3 
cr 1 
CO 
Cm 


fciD 

.5 

e3 

w 


Inverted, 


3 

o 
u 

92 




O 




Ph L 






Equal, « 1 

3 

o 


en 


r 


Is 
> 


Octave, 


J 




-2 


3 
O 




M 

a> to 


Fifth, 


co 

3 




%-» 


3 


Direct, 


S|i 


Third, 


O 

© 




o 


'■S 




"co "E 


Second, 


co 




b/3 


o 




M 


Semitone, 


< 




1 


Double, o> - 

H 




"3 


Octave, 




6 
> 

03 




•S 


Inverted, 


5 fci) 

.5 •£ ■ 


Fifth, 
Third, 




Is 

© 

,3 




'? 




co «m 


Second, 






w 




M 


Semitone, 




-m 












Cm 












O " 












3 












.2 












*-*3 






- 


,_ 


- •> 




03 




i 


03 


Octave, 




eg 




c 




m . 


Fifth, 




co 




3 


Direct, 


3 .5 - 


Third, 




5 




-M 
"■+J 




»M CO 


Second, 






CO 


09 

3 




CO M 
H 


Semitone, 






H 

0) 


o 
Single, % - 




s 


L 






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> 


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fcj) 




cp bJD 


Fifth, 






3 
a* 

a 

3 


03 

w 


Inverted, 


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co ^ 
H 


Third, 

Second, 

Semitone, 


3 

© 

3 




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£ 




CO 




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3 


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'3 


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3 
" O 

© 

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3 




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Fifth, 


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<3 






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Direct, 


rt.S 1 


Third, 


CO 




CO 

3 


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CO 




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Second, 


< 




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o 


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o 




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03 


Double, © - 

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■a 




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Octave, 






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Fifth, 








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Third, 








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Second, 






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Semitone, 





312 THE WAVE OF THE VOICE. 

In the preceding view, only the first constituent of the Unequal 
wave is given. Another tabular scheme is subjoined of its second 
and third constituents; the intervals in each of the three being 
diferent. And I must here repeatj these tables represent what 
may be performed by the voice, in the multiplicity of its combi- 
nations ; a limited number only of which are to be regarded with 
reference to their practical purposes in speech. 

In thus penetrating the receses of Nature, we must be alowed 
to describe her most minute phenomena, however presently useles 
it may be. Nearly all the forms of the wave here noticed, might 
be made designedly by a skilful efort of intonation ; and perhaps 
are made in daily discourse, by the instinctive eforts of speech. 
Yet the unequal wave, far as I can perceve, has no particular ex- 
presion alloted to each of its several forms ; most of the varieties 
represented, being only permutations of constituents, answering 
the same purpose. Whether these waves not specialy significant 
with us, have ever been used to denote states of mind, or ever 
will be, is yet to be told. We have heard, but belief should keep 
a skeptic watch on hearing, that the Chinese vary the meaning of 
the same elemental or sylabic sound, eight or ten times, by changes 
of intonation. Do they draw upon the forms of the folowing table 
of the unequal wave ? Under any answer to this question, the 
analysis of speech, contained in this Work, will enable the Pho- 
netic Ethnologist to investigate the subject of his inquiry, with 
precision, and with an inteligible result. 



TABULAR VIEW OF THE WAVE. 



313 



Single. 



a 



Double. 



Direct 

or 
Inverted, 



Direct 

or 

Inverted, 



Direct 

or 

Inverted, 

Direct 

or 

Inverted, 



Direct 

or 

Inverted, 

Direct 

or 

Inverted, 

Direct 

or 

Inverted, 

Direct 

or 

Inverted, 

Direct 

or 

Inverted, 



The first consti- The second con- 
tuent being stituent being 
either a 



The third con- 
stituent being 
either a 




( Semitone 

an Octave. J s f c ™ d 
) third or 

I fifth. 



a Fifth. 



a Third. 



a Second. 



( Semitone 
J second 
j third or 
(, octave. 

( Semitone 
J second 
J fifth or 
V octave. 

( Semitone 
J third 
] fifth or 
I octave. 



C Second 

a Semitone. 1 ^f d 
) fifth or 

I. octave. 



r Semitone 

_ ■ I second 

an Octave. «/ third or 

(fifth. 



a Fifth. 



a Third. 



a Second. 



r Semitone 
J second 
*\ third or 

( octave. 

r Semitone 
J second 
i fifth or 
( octave. 

r Semitone 
J third 
\ fifth or 
( octave. 



( Second 

' ., J third 
Semitone. < fifth or 

(octave. 



2d 3d or 5th. 
Sem. 3d or 5th. 
Sem. 2d or 5th. 
Sem. 2d or 3d. 

2d 3d or 8th. 
Sem. 3d or 8th. 
Sem. 2d or 8th. 
Sem. 2d or 3d. 

2d 5th or 8th. 
Sem. 5th or 8th. 
Sem. 2d or 8th. 
Sem. 2d or 5th. 

3d 5th or 8th. 
Sem. 5th or 8th. 
Sem. 3d or 8th. 
Sem. 3d or 5th. 

3d 5th or 8th. 
2d 5th or 8th. 
2d 3d or 8th. 
2d 3d or 5th. 



21 



314 THE WAVE OF THE VOICE. 

From a comprehensive view of this table it is manifest^ there 
might be other methods of aranging its details. Each of the dis- 
tinctions given above might be taken as the generic heads of the 
wave ; and the others might be included as species. We might 
take the five intervals, for heads of as many divisions, and under 
each, for instance the octave, consider, First; the equal form of 
this interval, and its combination with other intervals into the 
unequal form ; Second ; its direct and inverted, and Third, its 
single and double forms. Or we might take the distinction into 
single and double for the two generic heads, and under each of 
these, enumerate the species, as being equal or unequal, direct or 
inverted : and so of any other asumed order of these distinctions. 

I shall, acording to the arangement in the table, divide the 
phenomena of the wave into two great clases, the Equal and 
Unequal, and subdividing each of these by the terms of the five 
intervals of the scale, shall under the heads of these intervals, 
consider the direct and inverted, the single and double forms. 

The pains taken to define the technical terms of this esay, to- 
gether with the exemplification by diagram, in the second section 
must have rendered all the movements on the scale, quite familiar 
to those who realy desire to learn. The description of the wave 
may therefore be so easily comprehended, that without a further 
notation, the Reader can readily picture its various forms, as we 
shall hereafter aply them. 

To learn the purpose, and expresion of the wave, let us recol- 
ect that it is compounded of a rising and a faling interval, the 
several characteristics of which have already been described. It 
will therefore be found, that the wave partakes respectively of the 
expresion of its various constituents : and further, that its con- 
tinuous line of contrary flexures enables the voice to cary on a 
long quantity, without the risk of faling into the protracted into- 
nation of song. 

The expresion of the wave in all its forms, is modified by the 
aplication of stress to diferent parts of its course ; at the begining, 
or at the end, or at the place of junction of its constituents. 



THE EQUAL WAVE OF THE OCTAVE. 315 

SECTION XXVI. 

Of the Equal Wave of the Octave, 

The Equal Wave of the Octave is made by a movement of the 
voice, in its upward, and continuously into its downward interval. 
It may be either single, consisting of two constituents ; or double, 
consisting of three ; tho this double form is scarcely used. It may 
also be diferently constructed, by the first constituent ascending, 
and the second descending, forming the directj and by a reversed 
sucesion, the inverted wave. 

The equal wave of the octave in its single form is rarely em- 
ployed in serious discourse. If used in the lower range of pitch, 
to avoid the sharpnes of the falsete, it gives an apropriate ex- 
presion to the highest state of astonishment, admiration and com- 
and. When it asumes the higher range, as it is apt to do, it loses 
its dignity as an impresive sign. Children sometimes employ it 
for mockery in their contentions and jests. Its double form has 
the same expresion, under a more continued quantity. The re- 
verse order of its constituents gives a diferent character, respect- 
ively to its single-direct, and to its single-inverted turns ; for the 
later by ending in an upward concrete, has the intonation of a 
question, under what we called the Interogative Wave ; the former, 
by a downward final movement, has the positivenes and surprise 
of the simple faling intervals. When the direct and the inverted 
wave of the octave is respectively double, the rule of final expresion 
will be reversed; for the double-direct will then end with the 
rising or interogative movement. 

The double form of the wave, particularly of the octave, claims 
atention rather as a part of our physiological history, than as a 
subject of oratorical propriety and taste ; and may, in point of use 
and expresion, be rather clased with theatrical outrages, and vulgar 
mouthings. 



316 THE EQUAL WAVE OF THE FIFTH. 

SECTION XXVII. 

Of the Equal Wave of the Fifth. 

Enough has been said of intervals, to explain the Equal Wave 
of the Fifth. Its name is descriptive of its structure. Nor need 
it be shown particularly of this, nor indeed of the suceding sec- 
tional heads of the wave, in what maner the single and double, 
the direct and inverted forms are made. 

The equal wave of the fifth, is used as one of the means of 
emphatic distinction ; and has therein an expresion varying with 
its form. The equal-single-direct wave of the fifth consists of an 
ascending and a descending concrete ; the first expressive of in- 
terogation, and the last of positivenes and surprise. But a junc- 
tion of these oposite constituents takes in a great degree, from the 
rising, its indication of a question ; and leaves to the faling, the 
full character of its positivenes and surprise. There is however, 
another efect of this junction, besides the overruling of interoga- 
tion. When a state of mind requiring the simple downward fifth 
is grave or dignified, it is expresed by prejoining the rising fifth j 
to form a direct wave ; and this direct wave is used instead of the 
simple fall, to give time to the sylable that bears it; for should the 
emphatic sylable require an extended quantity, the wave takes the 
place of the simple interval, which under unskilful intonation 
might, in the efort to extend it, pass into the protracted radical, or 
vanish of song. 

The inverted wave of the fifth has the compound expresion of 
surprised interogation, produced by the termination of its last con- 
stituent in the upward vanish. And it apearsj the direct wave of 
this, as well as of other wider intervals, retains a degree of intero- 
gation; and the inverted, a degree of positivenes and surprise. 

There is not much diference between the expresion of the single, 
and of the double wave of the fifth, except what arises from a 
change of structure by the adition of a third constituent. The 
double-direct here assumes an interogative expression, from the 
vanishing rise of its last constituent ; and the double-inverted has 



THE EQUAL WAVE OF THE THIRD. 317 

the meaning of surprise from its downward termination. Perhaps 
there is a little scorn conveyed by the double form of the equal 
wave of the fifth. This is certainly the case when the last con- 
stituent receves greater stres than the others. On the whole how- 
ever, this double form is not very frequently used as a sign of 
expresion. 



SECTION XXVIII. 

Of the Equal Wave of the Third, 

The Equal Wave of the Third, in the degree of its expresion, 
bears such a relation to the equal wave of the fifth, as the simple 
rise of the third bears to the simple rise of that interval. 

In all its forms, whether single or double, direct or inverted, 
the expresion resembles respectively, but in a more moderate de- 
gree, that of the diferent species of the equal wave of the fifth. 
From its less impresive character, it is more frequently employed 
for emphasis in the admirative and reverentive style, than the fifth 
and the octave, which are especialy apropriate to the earnestnes of 
coloquial dialogue, and to the pasionative intonations of the drama. 
It also serves, like the other waves, to extend the quantity of syla- 
bles in deliberate and dignified discourse ; and to preserve, at the 
same time, the characteristic equable-concrete of speech. 

The equal wave of the Minor third, we have said is not ad- 
missible into speech ; but if improperly introduced, as it often is, 
the efect of its inverted form does not difer much from that of its 
direct. 



318 THE EQUAL WAVE OF THE SECOND. 

SECTION XXIX. 

Of the Equal Wave of the Second. 

We have now to consider the equal wave of the second, which, 
if ever the time for a Natural, and thereupon a Scientific System 
of Elocution shall come to pass, will be regarded as a very impor- 
tant and interesting part of intonation. 

The dificulty of perspicuously defining and dividing the details 
of a subject, altogether as new to the author himself, as to his 
Reader ; and of giving a full description of parts that are element- 
ary and closely related, and that must be sucesively explained, 
obliged him to procede in the maner of gradual and partial de- 
velopmentj of changeful arangementj and of frequent reconsidera- 
tion, which produced this first, and so far, only full and instructive 
method of Analytic Elocution. In improving, or completing many 
of those sucesive systems of Science, which thru years or cen- 
turies, have been progresively extended, retrenched, and simplified^ 
method after method has been adopted, altered, and rejected ; and 
every subsequent observer, knowing the atempts and failure of 
his predecesors, has been enabled to suply the deficiencies, and 
corect the erors of former clasifications. For plan and purpose, 
in this ofered system of intonation, there was no preceding out- 
line either of fiction or of truth ; no instructive sketches of cor- 
ected erors, to save the author from his own ; and as yet, even no 
friendly-enmity of criticism to ' pluck ' them from his pages and 
1 throw them in his face/ He was therefore at first, and has been, 
in preparing suceding editions, obliged to ask the arduous, but 
wiling asistance of his own endeavors, to suply his oversights, and 
corect his faults : too often a vain and fruitles labor.* In acord- 

* What is here said of the kindly slaps of criticism is no longer literally 
true ; thanks to the friendship of enmity ; for it has corected our over-estimate 
of the intelectual capacity of the old elocutionist. I may differ from some of 
my Headers, who heleve that truth and justice can never lose thei* dignity, 
however they may descend to the comonality of persons and things ; yet I 
am wiling, under the privilege of a Note at least, to make, if it so seems, a 
sacrifice of dignity and taste to a humorous thot, reminding me that in 



THE EQUAL WAVE OF THE SECOND. 319 

ance with the maner of Dividing and Instructing here employed, 
our acount of the diatonic melody, regarded only the radical and 
concrete pitch of the second, and its sucesionsj thereby, to avoid 
confusing the Reader. Other functions and uses of the concrete 
were therefore kept out of view. It has since been shown, that 
the downward vanish of a second is introduced, for the purpose of 
varying the curent ; and that for interogative, and for emphatic 
expresion, other intervals both rising and falling, and these united 
into the wave, contribute to form the full and proper expresive 
melody of speech. We procede to show further, that the Diatonic 
Melody, this Groundwork of all the other intervals, employs the 
wave of the second as an important, or an esential constituent of 
its deliberate and dignified character. The Reader has already 
learned that long quantity is necesary for executing the wider in- 
tervals and waves. When therefore the interthotive and pasiona- 
tive styles are ocasionaly required on the diatonic Ground, they 
can be applied only to prolonged sylables. But as the plain nara- 
tive melody does not, along with its dignified character, convey 
any remarkable expresion, there should be some means, for de- 
noting this character, diferent both from the wider intervals and 
waves, which are pasionative signsj and from the simple rise and 
fall of the second, which are suitable only to short quantities, in a 
quick and 'triping' speech. These means are a prolonged quan- 
tity, on the wave of the second, in its direct and inverted, and 
sometimes its double form. In a previous section, there is an 
ilustration, from Paradise Lost, of the want of suficient length, 
in certain acented and emphatic sylables. I here use that instance 
for exemplifying the wave of the second ; where the simple rise 
and fall of this interval is set on all the short and unacented syla- 

eighteen hundred and fifty-five, an English reviewer, of limited learning, 
perhaps some journalized influence, and very near to total deafness, fell at 
last, not upon the erors of our Work, but upon what he took to be its incom- 
prehensibility ; and disapointing our expectations about ' fault and face^ > 
threw the whole Work itself ' to the dogs ; ' not considering^ how quick an 
ear these animals have for the high and low, long and short, strong and weak, 
harsh and gentle, and particularly for the barking abruptnes in the human 
voice. 

We wait to see whether trusty Ponto can make more of the subject than his 
distrusted Master. 



320 THE EQUAL WAVE OF THE SECOND. 

bles ; the direct or inverted wave, on all that are at the same time 
of long quantity, either acented or emphatic ; and where the prin- 
ciple of the faint rapid concrete, on short and unacented sylables 
is aplied even to the interval of the second. 



High on 


a throne of 


roy — 


-al 


state, 


which far 


4^4 


+*-+ 


^ 


tf 


A 


I 
i 



Out shone the wealth of Or mus and of Ind, 



fTT 



1^-"^°^ 



Or 


where 


the 


gov geous 


East with 


rich-est hand 


4 


^ 


A 


it*/ 4 


-nr* 


4~<nr\ 






T 





Show — 


-ers on her 


Kings bar- 


— ba — ric pearl and 


gold, 


[-P 


1 *~t 


-4^4- 


4 4 fS-4 


+ 



Sa tan 


ex 


— alt ed sat. 


r^r 


-4- 


* _ 


•v % 


^ 







This is a fine pasage of descriptive poetry : and the intonation 
here directed, seems, to me at least, apropriate to its character. 
There is great grandeur in the generic thought of the Ocasion ; 
the language is richly impresive, and the comparisons, striking and 
magnificent. But the description is not prompted by that excited 
state which we distinguished, as pasionative : nor should it excite 
that condition in the mind of an audience. The subject is pre- 



THE EQUAL WAVE OF THE SECOND. 321 

sented by the narator, for dignified and grave atention. We are 
invited to look up at the 'bad eminence ' of this royal exaltation, 
and behold the splendor, surounding a superhuman greatnes. It 
is however, only the Stil-life of the imperial Throne, and has not 
as yet arouzed a pasion. The poet, without himself stooping to 
overcome the beholder with the vulgar disturbance of wonder, 
elevates his picture to the refined and inter-thotive state of admi- 
ration. For this requires no wider rising and faling thirds or 
fifths or octaves ; no semitones ; no florid waves ; no tremors, nor 
percusive acentsj in short, no excesive nor extraordinary use of 
vocality, time, force, abruptnes or pitch. The diagram shows the 
simple upward or the downward rapid concrete, on all the short 
and unacented sylables; and the direct or inverted wave of the 
second, on the long and acented. The feeble cadence is set on the 
word gold, as this terminates the description of the Throne, but 
not the sentence ; which is finally closed by the faling triad : and 
this is made more complete, by the radical descent of a third on 
the sylable tan, forming the Prepared cadence : which however, 
by the continuation of the text, is not here required. I have so 
aranged the intonation, as to give variety to the curent of the 
melody. The prevailing phrase of radical pitch is the monotonej 
whether the concrete rises or falls, or the wave is direct or invertedj 
yet this line is broken ocasionaly by the rising and faling ditone. 
The phrase of the monotone here used, is strictly apropriate to 
that deliberate and solemn style, formed by ading what we have 
caled the inter-thoughtive signs, to narative or descriptive dis- 
course. And tho we cannot, consistently with our phrase, narative 
thot, properly ascribe expresion to the monotone, yet we perceve, 
it has a remarkable character.* 

* Sometimes a subject is more clearly viewed, in the broad light of its con- 
trary. Let our extract then be read in the Falsete, with every kind of inter- 
val and wave, mingling as if they had been given us, only to run up and 
down the voice, and tumble over sylables, without a steady regard to thot or 
expresion. Such outrages always raise their contrasts ; and we close our ears 
upon the nuisance, to supose the lines, utered in a full orotund, with a well 
adjusted intonation of the diatonic melody, by a Garrick or a Booth. It may 
perhaps be too ludicrous an ilustration, even for a Note : but just think of 
that reverentive Anthemj 'Before Jehovah's Awful Throne,' sung by a 
single Soprano, with the acompaniment of a fife and a violin I 



322 THE EQUAL WAVE OF THE SECOND. 

I have refered to the necesary use of the rapid concrete, on short 
and unacented sylables, in the diatonic melody ; and in the admi- 
rative here ilustrated ; when this style is designed to be impres- 
ively deliberate, there may be a slight extension in the time of the 
rapid concrete. If cautiously guarded against drawling on imu- 
table sylables, it softens the contrast between the slow and the 
rapid quantities, gives a varied unity to the vocal curent, and 
smoothly extends and leads the concrete towards the wave. And 
this under the impresive subsonorous fulnes of the orotund, will 
at some after time, give to the then instructed Speaker himself, 
and his enlightened audience, that inteligent satisfaction, which 
must surely flow from the analytic and esthetic principles of an 
exalted style of epic, dramatic, and not merely a church, but a 
God-with-Nature adoring elocution. 

I am left so alone with my subject, that it is social even to feign 
a compcmion. I therefore supose the Reader may with me, recolect, 
that the imediate sucesion of the rising and the faling ditone, forms 
what was caled the phrase of Alternation. When this is employed 
in a curent melody, the constant variation of the radical pitch, to- 
gether with a short sylabic time, and a use of the simple concrete, 
broadly distinguishes its efect, from that of a long quantity and 
the monotone, in the preceding example. The foloAving notation 
of the description of Abdiel's encounter with Satan, in Milton's 
sixth book, will ilustrate the character, we must not call it the 
explosion of the alternate melodial phrase. 



So say — ing, a no ble stroke 


he 


lift— ed high, 


4 * m 4 4 * 4 


4 


4lH <£& mm 


fSf Q V 9 w 




-« ra i? 


Which hung not, but so swift with 


tem- 


— pest fell 


m 

4 1 4 * * * 


% 


© w 


9 v ^ 



THE EQUAL WAVE OF THE SECOND. 323 

On the proud crest of Sa tan, that no sight, 



Not mo tion of swift thot, less could his shield, 

4-4 



^r*-*~ir" 1 « « f ^ 



Such 


ru 


— m in ter cept.* 


4 




4 4 


w 


r* 


4 - 



On comparing this with the preceding diagram, we find a pre- 
dominance of monotones, in the former, and of the alternation in 
the later ; the line of the monotone in the former, being broken 
by an ocasional ditone ; and the alternation in the later by an occa- 
sional monotone. In the example before us the active character 
of the description asumes a varying radical pitch, suitable to the 
vigorous phraseology of the Poet. Consistently, as it seems to 
me, with the language, and with the rapid energy of the scene, I 
have set the wider interval of the third, only on four sylables ; and 
the wave of the second, on four : nor should these intonations have 
more than a limited quantity. The Fourth or Feeble form of the 
cadence is set on the last sylable of saying : the phrase, as the 
sequel to an antecedent declaration, being slightly terminative. 
All the rest of the intervals are simple rising and faling rapid 
concretes, and are well acomodated to the drift of the descrip- 
tion. The earnest purpose of the action does not alow a full and 

* The three early editions of ' The Philosophy of the Human Voice ' have 
the epithet quick, instead of swift thot. How this oversight occurred I cannot 
tellj yet it was not until preparing the fourth, and comparing our examples 
with the originals, that the error was discovered. For my own reading, I 
might draw a motive, both from intonation and from rhetoric, why I regret 
the discovery. But this does not concern the criticism or taste of others. 



324 THE EQUAL WAVE OF THE SECOND. 

reposing cadence on intercept I have therefore used a tripartite 
form, and given the first two constituents, rising concretes. There 
is a wider range of pitch in the melody ; for tho the radicals are 
still proximate in their sucessions, their course embraces a greater 
extent on the staff, and produces a lively contrast with each 
other. All these conditions give to the lines before us, a character 
very diferent from that of the former example. A prevalence of 
the monotone here, might perhaps represent the dignified courage, 
and calm security of an agressor confident of suces ; but it would 
be misaplied and faded coloring, for the fictional picture of huried 
watchfulnes and dreadful expectation, which the description of 
this descending impetus is calculated to excite. It is true, the 
above lines are only descriptive of a super-human action. But it 
seems to be a rule of sympathy in such cases, that he who de- 
scribes, should himself, in his verbal picture of the scene, take-on 
to a degree, the state of mind, which he aims to excite in others. 

The former of the above ilustrations, is purely in the diatonic 
melody : and tho the later is strictly descriptive, still its character 
either calls for, or admits the rising and faling thirds asigned to it ; 
at the same time it afords an example of the use of wider inter- 
vals in the diatonic current. Others may think j still wider into- 
nations might be employed. Let it be as they wish. I here propose 
to set-forth the principles of an art, not to prevent the free-choice 
of Taste in the thotful aplication of them. In any case however, 
a diference of opinion on the last example may serve to show how 
dificult it is, nicely to divide the expresive, from the non-expresive 
in speech. 

What is here said of the use of the direct wave of the second, 
in ading dignity, reverence, and solemnity to a diatonic melody, is 
also true of its inverted form. 

I am not awarej the double-equal wave of the second has a 
character diferent from that of its single form, except what may 
arise from extending the quantity of sylables. An unusual pro- 
longation of quantity in the diatonic melody, instinctively produces 
the double wave ; for the voice may take this serpentine course, 
thru the second, without producing any unpleasant snarl, similar 
to the efect of the double wave on some of the wider intervals. 

There is what we called a Continued wave, or a progres of the 



THE EQUAL WAVE OF THE SECOND. 325 

line of contrary flexures beyond the term of three constituents. 
It is only on the time of an equal wave of the second in a diatonic 
melody, and of a semitone in the chromatic^ this continued exten- 
sion, if at all, is alowable. Should some extraordinary state of 
reverence or other solemnity require an unusualy long quantity ; 
and should the time of an indefinite sylable not be exhausted, when 
the voice has pased over the three constituents of the double wavej 
it must if still continued, necesarily be caried-on either in the note 
of song, or in further flexures of the wave. When it takes the 
course of the flexures, the bad efect of the former case will be 
avoided ; nor will this multiplied repetition of the rise and fall, 
by this small interval of a tone, produce any positive or unpleasant 
impresion,* 

I have ascribed an importance to the subject of this section, 
because it is the foundation of a very general principle in elocution. 
The Reader will now perhaps admit the propriety of our distinc- 
tion between the efect of a narrative melody formed by a varied 
rise and fall of the voice thru the interval of a tonej and that 
produced by the ocasional introduction of other and wider inter- 
vals, constituting what was distinctly caled Expresion. Very few 
speakers are able to execute this plain melody, in the beautiful 
simplicity of its diatonic construction. Some constantly execute 
their current, in the simple rise of a third, a fifth, or a semitone, 
or give every emphatic sylable in an impresive form of their 
waves. Perhaps these faults procede from an ambitious atempt to 
efect a greater degree of dignified expresion, or variety in the sim- 
ple melody, than the speaker is able to acomplish by the second 
alone. In this atempt he employs some of the wide and excep- 

* It may be asked here, why. if the voice can be prolonged on a continued 
wavej should the length of sylables, as stated in our fourth section, be re- 
stricted? The extreme prolongation, in the above case, is made on a single 
tonic or subtonic element ; and we said in the same section, that a sylable 
consisting of a single tonic might be indefinitely prolonged ; whereas proper 
sylables are the product of certain combinations of the elements^ and these by 
their position, in our language, arrest the sylabic impulse. The sylables all 
and ame might be continued during the whole term of expiration ; but it 
would be on one alone, of their respective elements ; and such instances are 
not embraced in the general law of sylabic combination, or are only exceptions 
to it. 



326 THE EQUAL WAVE OF THE SECOND. 

tional intervals, and produces a false and monotonous intonation ; 
for the remarkable character of the expressive intervals cannot be 
unduly repeated, without of ending a well instructed ear. Yet the 
simple and unobtrusive second, may be continuously used without 
producing a like disagreeable uniformity ; changes of the simple 
rising and faling secondj of the direct and inverted equal wave 
of this interval, together with a judicious use of time, and radical 
pitch, afording suficient variety to the diatonic melody, without 
destroying its characteristic plaines. 

It is the mental grandeur represented in the first of the two 
preceding diagrams, that under the Old Elocution, would make 
a reader, in confounding words with things, endeavor to expres 
that grandeur, by what he might choose to call grandeur of voice; 
and by an improper use of intervals of great extent, for the repre- 
sentation of greatnes of thot and pasion, to become pompous and 
afected. But the new School of Nature tells him that grandeur 
in Elocution, is signified, like grandeur in all other artsj by a 
Unity, which must be both Great, and Uncomon. 

Unity, which of itself is a primary esential of grandeur, is 
denoted in the voice, by a continuation of simple concretes and 
waves under limited intervals; the melody being varied so far 
only, as not to destroy the pervading character of a conected 
whole. 

Greatnes of vocal Unity is denoted by gravity of pitch, exten- 
sion of quantity, the fulnes of an orotund vocality, and by a 
deliberate and distinct articulation. 

An Uncomon vocal Unity is shown by a general use of an ele- 
vated vocal style, whether of grandeur or elegance, but unknown 
in the habits of the popular mind and ear. 

All these vocal signs, characterize a deliberate, dignified, and 
self-posesed execution of that form of Diatonic Melody, which, 
acording to our Divisions, inexact as they may be, I call the 
reverentive or admirative drift ; intermediate between the purely 
Thotive and the Passionative. And here we may remark, of 
every character of intonation, as of every style of Writing ; that 
it is not a general use of wide and winding intervals in one case, 
and of strange and high-sounding words, in the others but of 
apropriate intervals for states of mind in the former, and of ' proper 



THE EQUAL WAVE OF THE SECOND. 327 

words in their proper places' in the later 3 which respectively pro- 
duces the purity, propriety, precision, truth, dignity, force, freedom 
from afectation, and the like impresive and satisfactory efect in 
each. The English Church-service furnishes, ocasions for the use 
of the most deliberate, dignified, and solemn character of the 
speaking voice. The gravely thotive and reverentive state of 
mind, in its exalted subject; the brevity of style, so esential to 
the representation of that thot ..and reverence; with the unafected, 
yet impresive structure of its Saxon-worded rythmusj all contrib- 
ute to a prevailing and serious unity, to a simple grandeur of uter- 
ance, altogether undisturbed by pasion, and to a dignified Drift, 
never perhaps found in 'any other narative, directive, and supliant 
form of composition. Let us take its solemn opening. 

The Lord is in his ho ly tern — pie. Let 



^ ^^ €\%s ¥ 



€^ 



all the earth 


keep 


si — 


-lence 


be- 


— fore 


him. 


g\ J d 


•r 


g^\ 


tf^ 


1 


^ 


"V 


W ) W 9 






9 




- qp 



The curent of this notation is diatonic, except, all, which has 
the unequal-direct wave of the second and third, or it might be 
the fifth. It is seen that some of the short and unacented sylables 
have a moderate length of wave ; giving to the whole, the fulest 
degree of dignified prolongation : in this extension, however, the 
Reader must use his taste and discretion, to prevent awkwardnes 
or afectation. Of the two sentences, the feeble cadence is set at 
the first, and the Full, closes the last. 

No one without inquiry on this subject, can be aware of the un- 
pretending yet dignified force, the diversified sucesion, and severe 
simplicity of the diatonic melody, when conducted on the principles 
of the radical change, formerly laid down ; and varied by the apro- 
priate disposition of the single rise and fall, the direct and inverted 
wave, the degrees of quantity, and certain forms of stres to be de- 
scribed in a future section. Upon the vocal level, so to speak, of 



328 THE EQUAL WAVE OF THE SEMITONE. 

this melody, the ocasional expresion of the wider intervals comes 
with all the influence that variety of impulse and measurable con- 
trast must necesarily produce. Whereas he who is constantly deal- 
ing-out his semitones, thirds, fifths, and octaves, alows no repose 
to the ear ; and when the real call for their expresion ocurs, both 
his ear and mind are unable to perceve their apropriate meaning, 
and atractive force. 



SECTION XXX. 

Of the Equal Wave of the Semitone. 

The chromatic melody was formerly described as a succesion 
of radical and vanishing semitones^ and it was even then stated, 
that a continuation of the rising into the faling interval is used 
for repeating the plaintive impression of the simple concrete, and 
for ading length to the quantity of sylables. This wave is re- 
markably distinguished by its peculiar and atractive expresion. 
Its direct, inverted, and double forms have necesarily, by repe- 
tition of the interval, greater plaintivenes and dignity than the 
simple rise ; and at the same time furnish means for diversifying 
the curent melody. 

A mingling of the reverse forms of the wave is employed in 
the chromatic melody; for the continued repetition of this re- 
markable interval, and the frequent ocurrence of the phrase of 
the monotone, make it desirable to vary the impresion of the 
melody, without destroying the esential character of its plaintive 
constituents. This is acomplished, if I am not over-nice in the 
distinction, by an apropriate use of the direct and inverted wave ; 
these contrary movements having a slight diference, perceptible 
to me at least, on comparative trial : for the efect of the simple 
rising interval being diferent from that of the faling, the varied 
final constituent gives, tho faintly, its character, respectively to 
the reverse forms of the semitonic wave. It is to be observed 
however* the diference between the direct and the inverted waves 



THE EQUAL WAVE OF THE SEMITONE. 329 

of the under intervals is expresively markedj yet that between the 
direct and the inverted waves both of the tone and of the semitone, 
contributes only slightly to vary their respective melodies. 

On the subject of this and the preceding section, it is worthy 
of remark, that whenever a good reader expresively prolongs the 
quantity of his sylables, and surely no one can read well without 
this use of quantity, he does instinctively employ these waves, in 
all deliberate and solemn uterance ; whereas, his voice asumes the 
simple rise and fall of these intervals, without the continuous 
flexure, in delivering those gayer and more energetic states of 
mind that naturaly employ a shorter time of sylables, and a more 
rapid pronunciation. 

If these are the spontaneous and satisfactory eforts of the voice, 
on two such important points, it may be askedj why we should 
labor, so deeply in search of principles, that brought into practice, 
would be no more than the fulfilment of the instinct of speech. 
I have said, these points of intonation are acomplished by a Good 
Reader^ if there can be a good or finished Reader, without the 
educative means of sciencej one to whom nature has given a 
mental perception to asume the thot and pasion of an author, and 
the vocal power to represent them with propriety ; by one who, 
when he feels the uneasines of eror, will give even painful industry 
for its corection ; and who, in his self-directed labors, is instinctively 
folowing the order, and efecting much of the purpose of scientific 
analysis and rule. 

But how shall he find out, or preserve his way, who has not 
this native ' grace ' of improvement; w T ho searches after right, 
without knowing what is wrong ; and who copies both the faults 
and merits of an individual example, instead of reaching forth, 
under the direction of broad-founded precept, to gather excelence 
by discriminative selection. It is to such a person, a develop- 
ment of the constituents of speech becomes indispensable. To 
him the fulnes of history, the strictnes of definition, and the 
difusive light of system, aford those aids, which the eagle-eye of 
observation, and the sure- winged thrift of a well-provided and 
unincumbered intelect, in bearing itself from instinct, up towards 
science, may not esentially require. 

22 



330 THE WAVE OF UNEQUAL INTERVALS. 

SECTION XXXI. 

Of the Wave of Unequal Intervals. 

This term denotes a vocal movement, by contrary flexures, with 
constituents of diferent extent. If the voice rises by a second, 
and then in continuation falls thru a third j or falls thru a given 
interval and rises by a diferent one, it is caled the Unequal Wave. 

It will at once be percevedj there is a direct and an inverted, a 
single and a double form of this wave ; but a consideration of the 
details of the several forms, as named in the Second Tabular view 
would be practicaly useles except their respective expresions could 
be definitely asigned. But the recognized varieties of expresion 
of this unequal wave bear a very small proportion to its multiplied 
species. It embraces wonder, positivenes, and interogation, in 
diferent degrees, acording to the extent of the interval and the 
direction of its last constituent. I cannot however, particularly 
ascribe to the forms of this wave, any expresion, except that of 
strongly marked scorn, and other mental states of like character 
and force. These states are in a slight degree conveyed by the 
curling of the Equal wave, and even by the simple rising, and 
falling fifth, and octave, when much stres, or an aspiration is laid 
upon their vanishing extremes ; still the most impresive sign of 
contempt, and of other related states, consists in a wide variation 
of the constituent intervals of the wave ; especialy if the wave is 
double, with the intonation strongly aspirated, or with what shall 
be described hereafter, as the Gutural Vibration, on its final con- 
crete. 

This wave of unequal intervals is employed for the stronger, 
and generaly exagerated pasions of the drama, and in the peevish- 
nes, and coloquial cant of comon life ; but it should be rarely used 
in the moderate temper of the greater part of elevated composition. 
It has a vulgar earnestnes, and a quaint familiarity, that render it 
adverse to a grave or graceful design of speech. 

When the expresion of scorn is required on an ocasional word, 
in a curent melody of dignified or solemn discourse, it is under 



THE WAVE OF UNEQUAL INTERVALS. 331 

the direction of propriety and taste, generaly made by stres and 
aspiration, on the simple rise or fall of the third or fifth j for this 
conveys a more moderate degree of the pasion ; at furthest, the 
expresion is not to be caried beyond the aspirated structure of the 
single-equal wave. 

There is a peculiar expresion of the unequal wave, described in 
the section on Chromatic melody, forming an exception to the 
general character of scorn, above ascribed to it. I refer to its em- 
ployment for chromatic interogation. In this case it is necesary to 
give, on the same sylable, both a plaintive and an interogative 
expresion; and this can be acomplished, only by subjoining to the 
last constituent of the equal-direct wave of the semitone, or to the 
last constituent of its double-inverted form, the rise of the third, 
or fifth, or octave. But the double and other forms of the unequal 
wave, cease to be expresive of scorn, by withholding the aspiration, 
and the gutural vibration from their last constituent. 

The unequal wave may form the cadence of a chromatic melody, 
on one sylable. Here the voice rises by the interval of a semitone, 
and then finally descends concretely a third or fifth. This intona- 
tion however, from its peculiar expresion, is unsuitable to the 
repose required in the cadence : for it expreses, particularly if en- 
forced by stres, plaintive or querulous surprise : and consequently, 
is admisible on the last long quantity of a chromatic sentence, only 
when it conveys this state of mind. Should the stres be increased 
with an aspirated close, it would give the expresion of querulous 
scorn. 

As all the forms of the wave especialy require sylables of in- 
definite time, it is obvious, why long quantities are necesary in 
giving full dignity to speech, for these alone are capable of- bear- 
ing the wave ; dignity of expresion being an efect of the wave of 
wider intervals, on gravely emphatic words, and of the wave of 
the second and semitone, in the respective curents of the diatonic 
and chromatic melody. With the light of this principle, the 
Reader may perceve on what defensible ground, it was formerly 
maintained, that the majestic movement of the first line of the 
second book of Paradise Lost, is shocked by the limited and 
insuficient quantity of the word state. 

High on a throne of Royal state which far 



332 THE WAVE OF UNEQUAL INTERVALS. 

All the acented sylables of this line, except state, are of indefi- 
nite time, and will bear the equal wave of the second. The 
same is true of nearly all the sylables in the three suceding lines 
of the text : and with the exception here noted, the whole is ad- 
mirably fitted, by its time, for the vocal representation of this 
magnificent description, by the Poet of unsurpased Sublimity. 

From inatention to this subject of quantity, it often hapens that 
poets use sylables of imutable time, in emphatic places that call 
for the expresion of the wave. The folowing example, cited in 
the eleventh section, is here further explained. 

And practis'd distances to cringe, not fight. 

The scornful exultation, conveyed by the words not fight, requires 
a form of the unequal wave on each ; but from the limitation of 
their quantity, this movement cannot be employed, without a 
remarkable departure from corect pronunciation. 

In speaking of the various ascending and descending concrete 
intervals, it was shown that a similar, tho diminished efect of into- 
nation is produced by the leap or change of the voice, from the 
radical line of a concrete, to the pitch of its vanish, without pasing 
thru the intermediate space. The wave being only a junction of 
the concretes of its constituentsj it might be suposed that some 
expresion analogous to that of a concrete wave, could be produced 
by radical changes to the extremes of its flexures. Such a cor- 
espondence may be efected on some of the forms of the wave. In 
the case of the imutable words not fight, an aproximation may be 
made towards the required expresion of the continuous concrete, by 
giving not, at a discrete fifth above the line of the curent melody ; 
then returning discretely to that line on fight ; and finaly, rising on 
fight, from that line, with the rapid concrete of a third ; thereby 
producing a kind of discrete imitation of the direct-double-unequal 
concrete wave of the fifth and third. For if we supose the radi- 
cal of cringe, to be on a line, with the curent melody j and its con- 
crete to be caried from that radical place, thru the points of the 
rising and the faling discrete fifth above mentioned, it will, with a 
final rapid vanish of the third, form such a wave. This discrete 
intonation by a wider interval, comes much nearer to the expresion 



THE WAVE OF UNEQUAL INTERVALS. 333 

of contempt, designed by the exultation of Satan, than can posibly 
be reached on the triad of the cadence, to which the voice is prone, 
in this case, from the short time of the sylables, and their position 
at the close of a sentence. 

Another example, given in the eleventh section, may still fur- 
ther ilustrate this design to convey by radical changes, in a modi- 
fied degree, the expresion of a wave of equal intervals, when a 
limited sylabic time, renders its continuous or concrete movement 
impracticable. 

Faithful to whom, To thy rebelious crew? 
Army of Fiends, fit body to fit head. 

The words here marked in italics, convey ironical admiration, 
contempt, and scorn, and not alowing the concrete movement, 
may be intonated by an alternate skip of radical pitch thru the 
rise and fall of a fifth. With fit on the line of the curent melody, 
take bod, by radical skip, a fifth above fit ; y again at the curent 
line, a fifth below bod ; to, also on the curent line ; fit a fifth above 
this last ; and finaly head a fifth below, at the curent line : observ- 
ing, that with the radical skips, there is still a feeble and rapid 
downward concrete of the same interval, on all the sylables. I 
offer in the folowing diagram, two notations; one, of what we 
called a discrete imitation of the concrete wave proposed for the 
Poet's phrase ; another, with the same number of words taken, as 
well as I could compose them, to represent something like the char- 
acter of his short-timed phraseology ; and with suficient quantity 
to bear the concrete, and the wave. 



Fit bod— y 


to fit head. 


Well paired with all thy sins ! 


£&. ^ 


dl^i <&h 48k 


^ 


*n^ 


m j a a 


ft * 




^-^ * a * s&~^ *B 


f^ ^ 


^ & \\ 



The First of these notations is described above : tho here the 
rapid downward concrete of the third is, by a mistake, put for the 
fifth. In the Second, the word well has the inverted wave of the 
fifth, with its rising constituent, expresive of a sort of admiration, 
ironical it must be, at Satan's preposterous claims to an honorable 



334 THE WAVE OF UNEQUAL INTERVALS. 

faithfulnes. I say nothing of a slight tremor on this rising con- 
stituent, to show the exulting scorn of Gabrielj nor of any form 
or degree of vocality and stres, for the impresive display of the 
whole phrase. After the lighter sneer has been intimated, the 
rest of the words convey a positive asurance on the part of the 
speaker, of the truth of the contemptuous comparison, and should 
therefore have the conclusive intonation of the downward inter- 
vals. Paired has the faling fifth ; with, the feeble and faling 
rapid concrete of a third, on the line of the curent melody ; all, a 
positive downward fifth, from the hight of that interval above the 
curent ; thy, a direct unequal wave of the second and third ; and 
sins, a feeble cadence to close the phrase. There is in all this, but 
the plain inteligible up and down of the voice without asistance 
from any ocult quality, emanating from that 'soul 7 of the Elocu- 
tionist, which has never yet been seen, scented, touched, tasted 
nor heard. In the first of these ways only, by marking the ex- 
tremes of those intervals, which, upon extended sylabic quantity 
would be given as a wave, can that open eye of wonder, and snarl- 
ing of scorn, be substitutively executed. Yet even with every 
asistance from the radical skip, a reader, if he poseses the power 
of an educated elocution, must still find it vexatiously restrained 
within these words. 

Wq have had ocasion to aply the term simple to the unflexed 
concrete, to distinguish it from the wave. The above mode of 
intonation on imutable sylables is an example of what we caled a 
discrete compared with a concrete wave. 

It has been shown, that in the purposes of speech, two forms 
of the simple concrete, the slow and the rapid, are respectively 
required for long and short quantities. It was early a question 
with me, whether a rapid movement, thru the wave, is perceptible 
on an imutable sylable. Time and motion together with mater, 
are the great agents, in perpetual creation ; and in their labors, 
strive at the greatest and the least ; but are still respectively as 
untraceable in their minutenes, as ilimitable in their broad exten- 
sion. There is then nothing inconsistent with their functions, in 
suposing that an instantaneous and perfect movement of the wave, 
may be executed on the shortest sylabic quantity. Yet to me it is 
not obvious : and tho I would not, with the scholastic axiom, say j 



RECAPITULATING VIEW OF MELODY. 335 

there is no difference between the imperceptible, and the ' non- 
existent ;' still, by inference, the wave that cannot be heard, 
must be useles in speech. I leave the question therefore, not for 
the endles disputes, but for the observation, and for the determinate 
Christian ' yea or nay ' of others. 

Let me here recall the atention of the Reader to the subject 
of sylabication. It was shown, that the construction of sylables 
is governed by the radical and vanishing movement; that the 
course of sylabic sound is limited by the extent of the upward 
and downward concrete; and further stated that the prolonged and 
perfect sylable is practicable upon another form of pitch. ' We 
are now prepared to hear that the unbroken curent of the speak- 
ing voice, may be carried through the contrary flexures of the 
wave, on tonic and subtonic elements, without destroying that 
singlenes of impresion which forms one of the characteristics of" 
a sylable. 

This may be briefly explained by what was said on the subject 
of the alphabetic elements. The wave is a continuous sound, and 
consequently afords no oportunity in its course, for the outset of a 
new radical, which, with its folowing vanish would produce another 
sylable. And it was shown that an interuption of the concrete, 
whether made designedly by pause, or necesarily by the ocurence 
of an abrupt or an atonic element, is unavoidably the end of one 
sylable, and the preface to the begining of another. 



After the preceding description, of the individual functions of 
the speaking voice, we may take a more comprehensive view of 
the subject, by Recapitulating the acount of these functions, in the 
conected curent of discourse ; and thereby show them in the joined 
relations of synthesis, as they have been shown, in the separate 
individuality of decomposition. 

We speak with two purposes. First, to comunicate thots, apart 
from pasion. And Second, to expres thot with pasion. Acording 
to that diference, the voice should have a diferent set of signs, for 
each of these purposes : and this, upon inquiry, is found to be the 



336 RECAPITULATING VIEW OF MELODY. 

case. As it is dificult, if not imposible, to draw a strictly dividing 
line between simple thots, and what are caled pasions ; so the vocal 
signs, severaly representing them, cannot be clearly divided, in 
arangement. I have however, in previous parts of this essay, 
marked out a practical distinction, founded on the more obvious 
diference of the cases. For the plain narative of unexcited thot, 
we employ the Diatonic melody. 

This melody consists of the simple concrete rise of a second or 
tone, varied by the simple downward concrete of the same interval ; 
of a radical pitch changing by its several diatonic phrases ; with 
an ocasional emphasis of force or abruptnes, as the meaning may 
require; and a termination of the melody by the descent of the 
cadence. The grace and refinement of speech in this case are 
largely dependent on that equable-concrete structure of the radical 
and vanish, which displays a full and well-marked opening of the 
concrete, and a gradual diminution of its force. These are the 
constituents employed, with their arangement, for narative, and 
plain description : and generaly, if such subjects, as the definitions 
of astronomy, title-deeds of property, and gazete advertisements, 
are not read for the most part, in this thotive style of intonation, 
the efect will be unsuitable to their pasionles meaning. 

In the above described condition, or first form of the diatonic 
melody, the movement is suposed to be with a triping step and a 
short quantity. If however, the state of mind should be more 
serious and composed^ an increase of quantity in the acented 
sylables, together with a general slownes of uterance will be 
asumed: the concrete still continuing in its simple rise or fall: 
constituting another condition of the melody, tho still purely 
thotive or diatonic. 

Should this deliberate state be further raised into solemn dignity, 
the melody will asume, on extendible and emphatic words, the use 
of the direct and inverted wave of the second, together with an 
ocasional rising or faling third or fifth or their waves, and some 
moderately expresive form of the other modes. Here then, the 
thotive and the pasionative characters meet, and produce the rev- 
erentive or admirative style. Much of the Church-service should 
have this plain and yet remarkable intonation. It conveys in full 
the mental state of august composure, solemnity and veneration. 



RECAPITULATING VIEW OF MELODY. 337 

A proper management of the contrary courses of. its waves, to- 
gether with an ocasional radical skip, of a third or fifth on imut- 
able sylables, gives suficient variety to the melody ; while it avoids 
the unusual force of more impresive intervals, that would overrule 
the self-posesed composure and grave simplicity of this unobtrusive 
uterance. This form of melody includes the means for producing 
that graceful dignity of voice, which is in vain atempted by the 
loud-mouthed breadth of ohs and aws ; with strong percussive 
accents and long pausesj the waves of wider intervalsj and that 
hearties afectation which pases without motive or rule, in unex- 
pected transition from the strongest cushion-beating emphasis, or 
from stage vociferation, to the atempted significancy of a myste- 
rious whisper. 

The melody of speech is here represented as made-up exclusively 
of the concrete second or tone, severaly, under a short and a 
longer quantity, in the purely thotive diatonic • and again of the 
waves of the second, with the ocasional use of some other forms 
of voice, in the Reverentive ; in any case, however, we are to 
consider the diatonic melody as the general ground, on which the 
forms of all the modes of intonation, time, quality, abruptnes, and 
force, are to be employed for the higher degrees of emphasis and 
expresion. And this brings us to the division properly called 
Pasionative. 

This pasionative style expreses the most vivid and energetic 
state of mind, comonly caled Pasion, under all its degrees, from 
the reverentive to that of the highest mental excitement. Its 
signs are taken from the most impresive forms of the five modes 
of the voice. These impresive signs are only aplied ocasionaly to 
emphatic words and phrases ; and not so generaly as the second in 
the diatonic curent ; tho even this is frequently broken by some 
expresive interval^ showing, what has more than once been stated, 
that we cannot draw a strict line of separation between the inter- 
mingling styles of melody. It will be learned in a section on 
the Drift of the voice, to what extent, phrases and sentences of 
expresive intervals may be introduced. 

The distinction between thotive or diatonic, and pasionative 
speech is of such ruling influence, that we may again draw par- 
ticular atention to it. 



338 RECAPITULATING VIEW OF MELODY. 

In the act of Reading and Speaking, there has been, with the 
greater part of us, so promiscuous a mingling of all the forms 
and varieties of the modes of the voice, without regard to what 
we now know to be a natural and necesary distinction between 
the thotive and the pasionative states of mind, and between the 
signs which respectively denote themj that it is dificult, at first, 
not only to perceve the diference of these two sets of signs, but 
even to bring the mind to alow, there can or ought to be this 
apropriate distinction. When however, atention is once awakened 
by clasification and nomenclature, the diference becomes marked 
and habitual with an instructed ear. But how is this to be recog- 
nized by him who has not the oportunity of being directly taught 
the diference in the two cases ? It may be done indirectly, under 
the usual perceptions of his ear. Certainly, no one who has given 
the least atention to the elocution of the Stagej or to any other 
elocution, and even to conversation^ can have failed to perceve 
the diference, tho he never named it, between a deliberate, grave, 
and dignified uterance, and one of a plaintive, querulous, interog- 
ative, or lively character. The former is the narative, diatonic, or 
thotive, and the latter, the reverentive or pasionative style. Let 
the pupil then imitate these so widely diferent styles of speech, 
until they become familiar to his ear, and under the discriminative 
comand of his voice ; and with a knowledge of the intervals of the 
scale, he will perceve, that the narative, thotive, and dignified uter- 
ance, consists of the simple rise or fall of the second, on the shorty 
and of the waves of the second, on the longer sylables. When he 
is familiar with the audible efect of this plain diatonic melody, he 
will begin to recognize the state of mind that atends it : and then 
the whole dificulty of discrimination will be overcome : for there 
is as clearly a perception of this thotive state of mind, as there is a 
perception of the state of paslon. When the natural connection 
of mind with vocal sign is not overruled by false expresion, this 
plain thotive state will call up the plain diatonic melody, as an 
excited state of mind will call up the pasionative style. With 
atention to this natural law, there will be a readines in executing 
the plain, distinguished from an expresive intonation, without a 
confusion of their respective purposes, as we hear it, in the great 
majority of readers. If I may state my own case, I do not, on 



RECAPITULATING VIEW OF MELODY. 339 

an ocasion for using the plain melody, direct my atention especialy 
to each of the rising and filling seconds, and the waves that con- 
stitute it : but having previously learned the detail of sounds, and 
the states of mind, on which the distinction of style is founded, I 
bring up, or afect, or find-myself-in, the thotive state ; and from 
the instinctive operation of mind on speech, I do not, or cannot 
without violence to my natural or acquired Elocution, speak in 
any other way. 

There is one expresive interval of the scalej the Semitone, some- 
times employed on single words, and expresing complaint, pity, 
tendernes, or supplication ; but more generaly on phrases, and 
sentences, and thruout discourse. This we caled the Chromatic 
melody ; and like the two varieties of the Diatonic, its curent is 
either in the rise or fall of the simple interval, for deliberate grief; 
or, for strong expresion in the equal wave of the semitone, under 
its direct and inverted, its single and its double forms. Some parts 
of the Church-service, containing words of complaint, penitence 
and suplication, call for this dignified wave of the chromatic 
melody. From the marked expresion of the semitone, its melody 
never has the plainly Thotive condition. It is always either 
reverentive or Pasionative. 

Other constituents contribute to the means of corect, elegant, 
and expresive speech. These were considered under the terms, 
vocality ; Variations of radical pitch on its diferent melodial 
phrases ; Pauses, with the proper intonation to be used at them ; 
and Grouping, or the means of impresing on an auditor, more 
definitely, the syntactic relation of words and phrases, by means 
of pause, emphasis, and the varieties of time and force. 

This sumary includes the constituents so far enumerated, which 
enter into the composition of melody. Some important functions, 
yet to be described, will furnish us with other expresive signs. 






340 THE INTONATION OF 

SECTION XXXII. 

Of the Intonation of Exclamatory Sentences. 

, The downward concretes, and the wave, are variously expresive 
of surprise and admiration ; and as these, with like states of mind, 
are represented by what is called Exclamation, I shall point out 
some of the principles that seem to govern the use of these inter- 
vals, in Exclamatory sentences. 

Beyond a general admision of the existence, and of the expresion 
of the Hones of the voice/ or what we call Intonation in the Art 
of Speakingj this important function has, strangely, receved no 
further notice of its forms and uses, than that vaguely signified by 
the comon ' notes ' of Interogation, and Admiration. But as these 
notes imply only some undescribed peculiarity of voice, without 
being employed acording to system or rule, they can be consid- 
ered as no more than gramatical symbols to the eye. The indefi- 
nite state of knowledge on the intonation of these forms of speech, 
has been further confused by the vague uses of their symbols. For 
the note of interogation is often aplied to what are realy interject- 
ive, or argumentative apeals ; and what, by the light of inquiry, 
may be shown to be strictly exclamatory. 

The subjects of Interogative and of Exclamatory sentences are 
so intermingled in their gramatical structure, meaning, and into- 
nation, that it requires a comparative view of their several con- 
ditions to comprehend their relationships to each other. Prefatory 
therefore, to a description of Exclamatory sentences, I here give 
a sumary of what has been stated on the divisions, purposes, and 
forms of interogation. 

In the seventeenth section, we learned that even in the ques- 
tions there exemplified, the downward intervals with the direct 
and inverted waves are ocasionaly employed for their expresion. 
Had the Reader been prepared, by previous description of the 
character of these forms of pitch, it would there have been more 
particularly stated that some questions with the gramatical form, 
are made altogether by these downward movements. He may 



EXCLAMATORY SENTENCES. 341 

therefore now be told, after what has been said of the positive 
expresion of the faling intervals, that whenever a question gram- 
atiealy constructed, employs only the simple downward movement, 
or the direct wave, the interogative character is lost in that of the 
positive state of mind, which requires these adopted intervals. 

Interogations which employ, exclusively, the downward inter- 
vals and the direct wave, are in their meaning, what we caledj 
Questions of Asumed Belief; and are severalyj Apealing, Argu- 
mentative or Conclusive; and Exclamatory; to which may be 
aded, as bearing the same intonation, the Imperative question. 

In all these cases, except the imperative, there is a certain 
belief in the interogator, of an expected acquiescence on the point 
of inquiry ; and his perception of this belief is founded on the facts, 
and influences, embraced within his meaning, which are to be 
gathered from his maner, or discourse; constituting what we caled 
the Colateral grounds of indication in a question. 

In the want, at this time, of a discriminating nomenclature, we 
are obliged to take the term, Question of belief, with a latitude 
of meaning, between a simple intimation by the inquirer, of his 
knowledge upon the subject of the question j and his full asurance 
that the answer must acord with the hopes and expectations which 
prompted the question. For we learned in the seventeenth section, 
that the negative form varies in its asumed belief, from the slight- 
est degree, to the fulnes of a triumphant inquiry : and employs, 
acording to that degree, the various means of a partial interogativej 
in a wider downward interval, and a wider direct wave. The 
questions reserved for this section, imply their belief, to a degree 
that calls universaly, for a thoru and positive downward intonation. 

I have therefore included the four above named kinds of in- 
terogation under the present head of Exclamatory Sentences ; for 
these require the same downward forms of pitch. It will be 
dificult however, to draw a precise line of separation between the 
pure interogation of the rising intervals, and a gramatical question 
with a downward positive movement. And if we may not be able 
to make the points of their near resemblance, a mater of exact 
discrimination, we may still describe and arange the manifest 
diference between them. 

The Apealing Question. In this interogatory, the state of 



342 THE INTONATION OF 

mind of the speaker in most cases, aproaches to that of positive 
conviction ; as no one ever apeals, but with the expectation of de- 
cision in his favor. The apeal is put in a questionary form, either 
with a persuasive deference, or with cuning sophistry, as leading 
towards a favorable answer. The real or the asumed belief of the 
interogator produces, in questions of this kind, the same downward 
intonation which positive asertions require ; since the reference of 
these questions is made for a confirmation of the belief; and this 
is more clearly exhibited in the forms of poetical apeal to the will 
of Heaven ; for this implies the highest asurance on the part of 
the interogator. In the fourth act, and second scene of Julius 
Ccesar, Brutus saysj 

Judge me ye Gods I Wrong I mine enemies I 
And if not so, how should I wrong my brother! 

Here are two apealing questions, not adressed in the doubt of in- 
quiry, and with anxiety for a reply, but with the full expectation 
of a favorable decision. The words in italics therefore properly 
require thruout, the downward intonation ; in truth, the sentences 
are exclamatory. 

There is a fine example of this question in Hamlet; where the 
Prince comes upon the king, at prayer, after his penitent soliloquy. 

Now might I do i.t, pat, now he is praying ; 
And now I'll do't; and so he goes to heaven: 
And, so, am I revenged 1 } 

The last line is an apealing question of belief, to the speaker's own 
confidence in retributive justice. The intense seriousnes of Hamlet 
does not alow this question to take the more cheerful intonation of 
the rising intervals ; but calls for the gravity of a strong down- 
ward expresion, which may be aplied in this maner. With a 
slight pause after and, and so, give to the first of these words, a 
forcible emphasis of the faling fifth, or octave ; and to the second, 
a prolonged direct-wave, of either of these intervals ; the rest of 
the sentence having a downward intonation, with the tripartite 
cadence, and a strong emphasis on a,m and on venged. Hamlet 
satisfies himself, that sending the King to heaven, by Idling him 



EXCLAMATORY SENTENCES. 343 

at prayer, would not be revenge, but ' hire and salary,' on his 
partj and grace and 'salvation' to the King. And the asumed 
belief on this point, directs his question; And, so, am I revenged? 
And, is here to be taken as an illative particle ; so, as an elipsis, 
forj by so doing. The meaning of the pasage may then be ampli- 
fied thus : Now, might I do it ; (kill him ;) and now (while he w 
at prayer) I'll do't ; and so (by kiting h im at prayer) he goes to 
heaven. And so, (but by so doing,) am I revenged? or, (by so 
doing am I, therefore revenged f) This full phraseology requires 
no special aid from intonation, to show the thotful vengeance with 
which Hamlet questions the conection between cause and conse- 
quence, and justifies his apeal. When the sentence is reduced to 
its textual brevity, the emphasis of a positive intonation is necesary 
to asist the gramatic feeblenes, if not to clear up the obscurity of 
the eliptical construction.* 

* The 'Acting Drama' always omits this Scene of Hamlet. It must have 
heen intended by Shakspeare, tho its time is not yet come, to be a fine ocasion 
for two acomplished Actors : and when education shall take the place of jeal- 
ous ' Genius,' two, and many more, will act safely, if not kindly together. 
The Theater, under its present, I would say System of elocution^ if it had 
onej can with all its conjurations, draw-down from the firmament of ' His- 
trionic Inspiration,' only rays enough, in its nightly wants, to form one soli- 
tary Star ; which is at once made stationary in its powers, by becoming the 
sole center of admiration and applause. While the Poet faling to the poverty 
of the stage, and furnishing only a single character, to match the singlenes 
of the Actor, they both have agreed to travel together, for joint reputation 
and profit. 

A system of any kind, that can furnish only one great Leader in its afairs, 
whether of thot or action, must be a bad, a wrong, or a very imperfect sys- 
tem ; for it proves the Master to be but an Acident ; and an acident hapening 
within a rule must always be either an odity or an imperfection. A good 
system makes the intelect and the hand equal, among the studious and com- 
petent ; or, under a brotherhood of knowledge and principles, alows a difer- 
ence only in their degrees of excelence. "We have numbers without number, 
of Geometers, Arithmeticians, Chemists, Mechanics, and even comon Work- 
menj and we hope that hereafter, there may be, in the world, more than one 
great Actor at a timej all respectively, of educated inteligence and skill in 
their several arts, and nearly equal among themselves ; the necesary result of 
undisputed, and uniform methods of demonstrative instruction. But alas, in 
the ever-contentious subjects of Intelect, Law, Government, Morals, Medi- 
cine, Elocution, and Eeligion, there is still held up to us, the inimitable 
mastership, and solitary glory of Socrates, Aristotle, Alfred, Manco Capac, 



344 THE INTONATION OF 

The Argumentative or Conclusive question. The object of this 
question is not inquiry ; for it is generaly adresed upon data, that 
make the phrase, gramaticaly interogation, rather a conclusion 
from premises admited or proved. Thus Antony, over the body 
of Csesar, saysj 

He hath brought many captives home to Kome, 
"Whose ransoms did the general cofers fill : 
Did this in Csesar seem ambitious! 

Or as more strongly marked in this : 

You all did see that on the Lupercal, 

I thrice presented him a kingly crown, 

"Which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition/ 

These arguments, for so they may be caled, adressed in the 
words of a question, certainly cannot be receved with their usual 
gramatical meaning. The meaning is realy inferential that Csesar 
was not ambitious. In short, these cases belong to what might be 
figuratively termed an interogative sylogism, of that species which 
logicians call an Enthymeme, or an argument of two propositions 
only, the minor and the conclusion, thus : 

Csesar thrice refused a kingly crown ; 
Therefore Caesar was not ambitious. 

The sylogism being completed by the adition of its general or 
major proposition : 

An ambitious man would not refuse a kingly crown ; 
But Caesar thrice refused a kingly crown, 
Therefore Caesar was not an ambitious man. 

Such being the positive character of these phrases, it folows 

Washington, Garrick, Louis the Fourteenth, Esculapius, Luther, and Ma- 
homet ! I 

Whenever time shall fumigate the mind from such metaphysical notions 
asj 'familiar spirit,' 'favored of the gods,' 'Caesar and his fortunes,' the 
Shakspeare-mould of 'genius,' which broke under its first castings those 
miasmata of typhus fatality to emulative efortsj and shall set physical science 
plainly to survey the simple proces of cause and consequence in the human 
intelect, then and not till then, will we see clearly all such monopolizing 
ascriptions, in their ambitious, delusive, factitious, and distracting light. 



EXCLAMATORY SENTENCES. 345 

from the rules we have laid down, that they should receve an im- 
pressive intonation of the wider faling intervals and the direct 
wave ; the very oposite to those which denote an interogative. 

Acording to the present method of reading, by confusing the 
ordained laws of the voice, and thereby corupting its practice, 
these questions might be given with a thoro aplication of the rising 
intervals. But in this case, the intonation would be apt to asume 
the sneering expresion of the double-direct or single-inverted wave, 
and by its ironical efect, to endue the inquiry with the force of a 
real negation. 

And here our history points-out one of the many relations, 
discoverable between the arts of ' logic/ gramar, and rhetoric, 
and that of elocution ; or, between all the states or the purposes 
of the human mind, and the vocal means for denoting them. It 
has been shown, that the words in italics, of the above examples, 
are in meaning, positive declarations on the part of the intero- 
gator, of belief in a fact ; which by a Figure of speech, is con- 
veyed in the form of a question : and questions are generaly taken 
as words of doubt. Consequently in cases like these, where the 
voice has a positive meaning, it should be able to anul the usual 
power of the gramatical question. The means for efecting this, 
is by the use of the most emphatic degree of the downward inter- 
vals, and direct waves ; for their expresion is contrary to that of 
the rising interogative voice. And this instance may serve to 
pre-signify the differences in vocal and grammatical relationships, 
which the future cultivators of elocution will be caled upon to 
analyze, and to reconcile, by the extended powers and resources 
of their art. Strictly, every proposition of a sylogism must either 
affirm, or deny. £so question of real inquiry can therefore, form 
part of the proces of sylogistic ' reasoning ; ' as it neither afirms 
nor denies. Yet see, in the examples, how the voice breaks thru 
this law of the school, and almost of the mind, by its overbearing 
intonation j and endues an undetermined gramatical inquiry, with 
the asumed power of a positive belief. 

The Exclamatory Question. The apealing question, it has been 

stated, is exclamatory ; and conversely, it may be said here, the 

exclamatory question embraces an apeal. The only ground for 

distinguishing them is, that the exclamatory phrase apears to be 

23 



346 THE INTONATION OF 

further removed from the condition of a question, than the apeal, 
by its seeming the less to require an answer. 

In Shakspeare's Richard II, the King, in that celebrated descant 
on the state of princes, saysj 

I live with bread like you, feel want, taste grief, 

Need friends ; subjected thus, 

How can you say to me-$ I am a King ! 

The interogative words in italics do not require an answer, for, 
when interpreted by the two preceding lines, they contain reproof, 
displeasure, surprise, and conclusive denial, but not inquiry ; and 
therefore are properly expresed by the use of the downward 
concrete, and the direct wave. 

Perhaps the Reader may think 3 the Exclamatory question does 
not difer from the Apealing, or at best, only in degree. I am but 
the historian of my tongue and ear. After I have told all they tell 
me, the Reader may, and I supose will, think as he pleases about it. 

The Imperative Question. This, although bearing a positive 
intonation, is not, as above remarked, a question of belief, but 
takes its downward intonation from the influence of a state of 
mind, acidentaly conected with its own. There is such a thing 
as overbearing impetus in pasionative, as well as in physical mo- 
mentum ; whereby the expresion, apropriate. to one mental con- 
dition is caried into another, which under diferent circumstances 
would not admit of that expresion. The intonation of an impera- 
tive question, seems to be of this character ; for here two states of 
mind are embraced by the speaker^ Comand and Inquiry ; and 
these are in imediate conection with each other. The zeal of the 
question is exhibited in the vehement desire for an answer, and 
this desire displays itself in the earnest authority of comand. By 
this transfer, the comand asumes all the energy of the case ; and 
seeming to forget, if I may so ilustrate the subject, the rising 
expresion due to the inquiry, throws the positivenes of the down- 
ward imperative over the whole. This is exemplified by Macbeth's 
consultation with the witches. 

Witches. Seek to know no more. 

Macbeth. I will be satisfied. Deny me this, 

And an eternal curse fall on you. Let me know, 
Why sinks that caldron! and what noise is this! 



EXCLAMATORY SENTENCES. 347 

. The eagernes of Macbeth here rises into anger, at the prospect 
of disapointment. This anger asumes the comand, in the phrasej 
let me know ; and the strong downward intonation of this comand 
is, by the imperative force, continued thruout the two suceding 
questions. The inteligent Reader will, on trial, at once admit the 
propriety of this positive intonation, however he may explain it ; 
for let him, after the angry comand, imediately give to the ques- 
tions the rising intervals of interogationj and not only will there 
be a want of apropriate gravity and force, but the violent con- 
trast of expresion will be even ludicrous. Yet without the over- 
ruling of this imperative energy, the questions would take the 
interogative intervals ; for they contain a real inquiry. 

In the above instance, the question contains the previous com- 
and ; where it is wanting, we are to suppose the phrasej tell me, or 
some equivalent imperative. 

Perhaps one of the causes why imperative questions, as we 
have shown, drop their interogative intonation may be, that the 
gramatical structure, suficiently indicates the inquiry ; and alows 
the comand to continue the downward interval beyond itself. 
Some other states of mind, embraced in a gramatical interogative, 
require the downward intervals. I have given examples enough 
on this subject to direct the course of analysis, and a method of 
clasification. 

Upon the subject of the comon Note of interogation, we may 
remark, that as most questions are signified by their gramatical 
structure, and as this symbol gives no special rule for intonation, 
it may be regarded as useles, except in declaratory questions', and 
phrases that without it might be mistaken for imperatives. In 
these, the mark placed, as long ago proposed, at the begining of a 
question, would be definite in its purpose, from such sentences 
always requiring the rising intonation. That the comon intero- 
gative indication of this symbol may confuse a reader who atempts 
to direct his voice by itj is a fair conclusion from its being aplied 
to sentences which require, as we have now learned, a totaly (lif- 
erent expresion. 

Having in the present, and in a former section, considered the 
various kinds of interogation, that severaly require either the up- 
ward or the downward intervals, let us briefly recapitulate them. 



348 THE INTONATION OF 

First. Questions in their Gramatical construction, are severaly 
Declarative, Comon, Adverbial, Pronominal, and Negative. 

Second. In the state of mind or meaning conveyed, they are of 
Real Inquiry, of Belief, and Triumphant questions. 

Third. Questions in their various degrees of Force, are Moder- 
ate, or Earnest, or Vehement; and they may embrace surprise, 
plaintiveness, mirth, railery, anger, contempt, and all states of 
mind, not inconsistent with that of a question. 

These three kinds variously require in their structures, mean- 
ings, and degrees, either the partial, or the thoro rising intonation ; 
or a downward interval or wave intercurent with the rising ; which 
properly belonging to our seventeenth section, are there particu- 
larly described. 

Fourth. Those questions which always require the downward 
intonation, are the Apealing or Argumentative, the Exclamatory, 
the Imperative ; and there may be others of like character deserv- 
ing a name ; all of which from having the same downward interval 
or direct wave, we include under the present head of Exclamatory 
sentences. In truth they might be caled Figurative Questions by 
a license of speech, which takes the interogative construction, for 
the interogative meaning. But in them this meaning is lost under 
the vocal signs of a downward concrete and a direct wave, which 
we shall presently show proper Exclamations require. 

As the preceding descriptive acount and clasification of Inter- 
ogative sentences may, in this first atempt to bring order out of 
imperfect and desultory knowledge, seem intricate and untrace- 
ablej I here recapitulate the several gramatical Forms of ques- 
tions, the states of mind, meaning, or purpose that direct them, 
and their degrees of Force; with their Kinds, Structures, and 
Intonations, under a 



EXCLAMATORY SENTENCES. 
TABULAR VIEW. 



349 



I. Questions under a diferent Gramatical Form. 



Kind. 



Structure. 



Intonation. 



Declaratory. 



Comon. 



Adverbial. 



Pronominal. 



or a negative sentence. ( thoro 



:{ 



The verb, auxiliary, 
and nominative, trans- 
posed. 



The adition of an ad- 
verb to the comon. 



The adition of a pro- 
noun to the comon. 



The adition of a nega- 
tive to the comon, the 
adverbial, or the pro- 
nominal. 



Partial, or thoro, ac- 
cording to the earnest- 
nes, or the state of 
mind. 

Partial, if not made 
thoro by earnestnes, 
or the state of mind. 

Partial, if not made 
thoro by earnestnes, 
or the state of mind. 

Partial, or earnestly 
thoro; or with a down- 
ward interval, or a 
direct wave. 



II. Questions with a diferent Meaning, or Purpose. 



Real Inquiry. 



Asumed Belief. 



j Comon, or adverbial, f Generally thoro, ex- 
\ or pronominal. \ cept in series. 



1 



Comon, or adverbial, 
or pronominal, or neg- 
ative. 



! 



Partial, or thoro ; or 
a downward interval, 
or a direct wave. 



{Comon, or adverbial, ( Generally with { 
or pronominal : but \ nest downward 
generaly a negative. ( val, or a direct : 



III. Questions with diferent degrees of Force. 



Moderate. 



Earnest. 



f Comon, or adverbial, f „ 71 ,. , 

{ or pronominal. { Generall y P«*ial. 



Declaratory , or comon, 
or adverbial, or pro- 
nominal. 



f T 

I a 



Thoro, except when 
gurative ; and then 
downward. 



Vehement; with sur- f Declaratory, or comon, f Emphatically thoro, 
prise, or other excited J or adverbial, or pro- J f^P* ™ h ™ fi / ura - 
1 nominal, or negative. j tlve j ^nd then down- 



state. 



350 THE INTONATION OF 

TABULAE VIEW CONTINUED. 



IV. Questions under a Figurative Form. 



Kind. Structure. Intonation. 



Comon, or adverbial, f A j j • ^ ^ 

L«— .i— i ~l I A downward interval. 

or a direct wave. 



Comon, or adverbial, f A j j • t i 
' _:_„i „_ ] A downward interval, 

or a direct wave. 



{Comon, or adverbial, f 
or pronominal, or -J 
negative. ( 

( Comon, or adverbial, f . 
Argumentative. -J or pronominal, or -] 

( negative. [ or 

{Comon, or adverbial, ( . , , . , , 

or pronominal, or ! A downward interval, 
negative. ( or a dlrect wave ' 

{Comon, or adverbial, ( . -, 
or pronominal, or -| c 

negative. ( ora 



direct wave. 



From the detailed description and the Tabular view, on the 
subject of Interogative sentences, we learn how variously their 
forms are, in structure, meaning, and degree of force, under re- 
ciprocal subjection to each other. The gramatical are changed 
by the meaning, and by the degree of force ; the degree of force 
by the meaning ; and the partial overruled to the thoro, and even 
to the downward intonation. Scarcely a single rule can be univer- 
sally applied ; and all are more or less crosed by exceptions from 
every side. Such is the unsetled state of the facts colected by our 
imperfect analytic inquiry : and we leave others to reduce them to 
a less uncertain arangement. For all the interchanges of interoga- 
tive intonation are still directed by the uniform laws of Nature, in 
the Mind, in Language, and in the Voice ; and where Nature, in 
secrecy, is at her work of wisdom, we shall there find Order, when- 
ever we, in imitation of her patience, industriously find her out. 

We here learn that what we call Figurative questions, are by 
their downward intonation not improperly included w r ithin the 
section on Exclamatory sentences^ which we now procede briefly 
to describe. 



EXCLAMATORY SENTENCES. 351 

Many exclamations may be regarded as eliptical sentences. 
The design of these broken phrases is to give a forcible picture 
of the state of mind ; and as this is done with a brevity of style, 
which sometimes might not clearly convey these several states, it 
is necesary to employ aditional means, for their apropriate intona- 
tion. And hence arise the structure and the expresive character 
of Exclamations. 

The shortest exclamatory, like the shortest interogative sentence 
consists of a monosylabic word ; and this may be any of the parts 
of speech, if perhaps we except the article, conjunction and prepo- 
sition ; the interjection being the most comon. And here, as in 
the monosylabic question, the power of intonation is remarkable ; 
for it seems to be the art of speaking, almost without words. 
From the monosylable, exclamations vary in extent from the 
elipsis, to the full syntax of a sentence ; tho the greater part are 
abreviated by pasionative haste. Exclamations might then be 
aranged acording to their structure, as gramatically imperfect, or 
as complete. I shall class them acording to their state of mind 
or meaning. 

The extent of the faling interval or the wave in exclamatory 
sentences is in proportion to the energy of the expresion. The 
folowing interjective apostrophe, from its moderate temper, might 
require no more than the direct wave of the second, or semitone on 
0, and the triad of the cadence, on the remaining three sylables. 

O withered truth ! 

The energetic emphasis of Hamlet's revengeful exclamation at 
the atrocity of the Kingj 

O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain ! 

should receve on every sylable, either by slow or rapid concrete, 
the deep and forcible descent of the octave. 

Of the many kinds of exclamatory sentences, I shall only 
notice, the Admiring, the Plaintive, the Scornful, and the Im- 
perative; as these ilustrate the several forms of intonation re- 
quired by this impresive class of phrases. 

The Admiring Exclamation. Admiration is an earnest apro- 



352 THE INTONATION OF 

batory state of mind, under new and elevated perceptions. This 
newnes of objects, or of our reflections upon them, involves in a 
degree, an inquiry as to their character and cause ; and seems to 
call for the use of the rising intervals. This state has not the 
degree of force that requires a gramatical or a vocal question; yet 
there is in the character of Exclamation, a positive conviction of the 
rare admirative importance of the object. It is from embracing 
these two states of mind, that the admiring exclamation calls for 
the direct wave r or union of the rising and the faling interval ; 
the positive character of the exclamation, by the downward course 
of the last constituent, predominating over whatever inquiry may 
be indicated by the previous rise. Let us take as an example, 
the folowing description of the asembling of the falen Angels at 
Pandemonium. 

So thick the airy crowd 
Swarm'd and were straightened ; till the signal given, 
Behold a wonder ! 

Here the sylables hold and wond require the direct wave of the 
fifth, which their indefinite quantity freely admits. 

The Plaintive Exclamation. It was shown in the nineteenth 
section, in what maner a plaintive interogation may be made, by a 
junction of the semitonic expresion with the wider upward inter- 
vals. The plaintive exclamation is produced by a rise of the 
semitone continued into the downward third, or fifth, or octave, 
as the energy of the case may require ; constituting a direct wave 
of unequal intervals. The unequal wave of the rising semitone 
and faling fifth gives the proper expresion to the acented and long 
sylabic quantities of the folowing plaintive exclamation of Macduff: 

O Banquo, Banquo, 
Our royal master's murdered ! 

The Scornful Exclamation. It was said in the thirty-first 
section, that Scorn, acording to its degree, is expresed by the 
simple rise or fall of the wider intervals, or by the various forms 
of the wave, when made with an aspirated or a gutural voice ; the 
simple rise and the fall being apropriate to sneer ; and the wider 
waves, to the deepest contempt and execration. When therefore 



EXCLAMATORY SENTENCES. 353 

these states of mind are conveyed by short emphatic sentences, 
they produce what is here caled the Scornful Exclamation ; as in 
the folowing, from the Merchant of Venice, 

Bassanio. This is signior Antonio. 

Shylock. How like a fawning publican he looks ! 

This last line will be properly expresed, if the sylables in 
italics receve the unequal wave of the rising fifth and faling 
octave, under a slight degree of gutural aspiration ; and the rest 
of the sentence, the faling fifth, as a rapid concrete, with the like 
aspiration. 

The Imperative Exclamation. An imperative purpose in speech 
universaly requires a downward interval, or a direct wave. Other 
functions, such as stres, aspiration, and gutural grating, to be 
spoken of hereafter, mark the degrees of force or authority in the 
comand. The folowing exclamation of Macbeth to the Ghost 
of Banquo, calls for the downward fifth or octave on every syla- 
ble; acording to the degree of energy the speaker may think 
apropriate to it. 

Hence horible shadow, 
Unreal mockery hence ! 

We need not pursue this subject further. Exclamations are 
but forcible interjective expresions ; and there may Jbe as many 
kinds, as varieties of pasionative states of mind ; for every mental 
energy may be found in discourse, under the exclamatory form. 
Let others define and divide them. Perhaps the nomenclature, 
and examples here given, may asist the work of inquiry and 
clasification : and when hereafter, Elocution shall be raised into 
a Science, and cease to be, at least in intonation, no more than a 
comon animal instinctj all those things in the art, that can be 
to me subjects only of hope, may, in the fulnes of knowledge, 
be acomplished by others. 

Upon the subject of the intermingling of Interogative, and 
Exclamatory intonation, it is to be remarked, that in some cases, 
emphatic distinction may require the use of a downward interval 
or a direct wave, among the rising intervals of partial interoga- 
tives ; and a rising interval, among the downward concretes and 



354 THE TREMOR OF THE VOICE. 

direct waves of exclamation; the contrasts in such instances, con- 
stituting one of the characteristics of what is caled emphasis, or 
an impresive designation of single words. 

In reviewing our acount of the oposite indications of these two, 
and of other important divisions of speechj we perceve how they 
sometimes apear to cross and to contravene each other. The 
prevalent and cloudy, system of Elocutionj and much more, our 
metaphysical and mudled Fictions on the Mind, by resisting the 
clarifying influence of a strict observation, still keeps us carelesly 
ignorant of the natural diference between thot and pasion, with 
their several vocal signs ; and prevents our exact perception, why 
their phenomena, tho aparently, are in no way realy, inconsistent 
with the purpose of their ordination. So it is. And so perhaps, 
the self-contented and so called philosophic world will have it. 
Just as in government, religion, morals, the social relations, and 
medicinej with all our majesterial boasts of power and progresj we 
have not the perception, knowledge, truth, virtue, and honor, to 
save » us from still prevailing confusion, dispute, and disaster j in 
our restles atempts to rectify these subjects of conventional trade, 
human ambition, and for all their pretended purposes, as yet of 
deplorable failure. 



SECTION XXXIII. 

The Tremor of the Voice. 

If the Reader has borne in mind the explanations in the first 
section of this essay, he must be aware that the forms of pitch so 
far described, are, severaly, phenomena of the concrete, the dis- 
crete, and the chromatic scales. He has now to learn the means 
of expresion derived from the Tremulous scale. 

This scale consists of a rise and fall on a tonic or subtonic 
element, thru the whole compas of the voice j by a more delicate 
exercise of that particular vibration in the throat, caled in comon 
language, gurgling. Altho the Tremor has always been known 



THE TREMOR OF THE VOICE. 355 

as a vocal function, it is here first analyzed, and its use and man- 
agement in speech described. 

In our first section there is a general acount of the Tremulous 
scale. We must now be more particular. 

It has been shownj every efort of the voice is necesarily in the 
radical and vanishing movement ; and that the audible character- 
istic of the several intervals of the scale may be distinctly recog- 
nized by their ejects, even on the shortest imutable sylables. 

As then each of the tonic and subtonic elements does, in its 
shortest time, always pass rapidly by the concrete, it folows, that 
however quickly sucesive they may be repeated, each impulse must 
be a concrete interval. When therefore the tremor is made on 
any of the above named elements, either alone or in sylabic com- 
bination, and in this last case, it is still heard only on a single 
element; the sucesive constituent impulses of that tremor must 
each consist of an abrupt radical, and of a rapid concrete thru 
some one interval of the scale. Let us, for brief and more pre- 
cise description, call these impulses, or iterations, the Tittles : and 
the spaces on the tremulous scale, between the tittles j here asumed 
to be equal, for so they seem to mej we will call the Minute Tit- 
telar Skip or interval. Whether these skips here asumed as equal, 
are of the same extent, under all circumstances, and in every voice, 
it is not now necesary to inquire. The tremulous scale is then 
made-up of a sucesion of tittles, each of which, like the comon 
sylabic impulse, has its rapid radical and concrete pitch. Taking 
the concrete of the tittle, as a designation, there may be a tremor 
of the semitone, second, third, fifth and octave ; the concrete pitch 
of each sucesive tittle rapidly rising or faling thru those intervals 
respectively. In this case the tittelar skips are suposed to be on 
the same line of radical pitch; still it is easy to perceve, that while 
the rapid concrete of these tittles is moving in its interval, the 
tittles themselves may, in their chatering radical skips, be caried 
upward or downward, thru a part or the whole of the compas of 
the voice. These tittelar skips with the rapid concretes, are made 
in two ways, as in the folowing diagram j 



356 



THE TREMOR OF THE VOICE, 
1 2 3 4 5 



UiU 



stH 



where a given number of these skips are continued on one line of 
radical pitch : as in the first and second bars ; the former, having 
the rapid concrete of a second ; the latter, that of a fifth. The 
third bar represents a line of skips, with a change by comon radi- 
cal pitch, thru a second or tone ; and by iterations on a line, with 
a radical change, by proximate, and it may be by remote degrees, 
the voice in one manner, ascends the whole compas, of the dia- 
tonic scale. 

In another maner, the ascent of the tremulous scale is made, 
by taking the radical of each tittle, sucesively, a minute interval 
above the last, as in the fourth and fifth bars ; the rapid concrete 
in the former being a third, and in the latter, a fifth. In this 
manner, without the last described linear step by proximate or 
other degrees on the diatonic scale, but with a direct rise or fall by 
tittelar skips the whole extent of the voice is traversed. We have 
no means for measuring the space between the tittles, in this direct 
manner of ascent. It cannot be a semitone. If it were, the 
tittelar intervals being all equal, the tittelar skips would in all 
cases, be plaintive ; whereas, it is so only when the concrete of the 
tittle is a semitone. And it may be infered, that it is not greater 
than this interval : for if we make the tremulous movement of a 
major third, the number of tittelar skips will excede five ; which 
is the number of semitones included within the third. How much 
less than a semitone, the tittelar interval may be, we leave others 
experimentally to decide.* 

* Some one, it seems, has gone far beyond comon perception in distinguish- 
ing such minute intervals: as I find the folowing statement under a Note, on 
the nine hundred and twentieth page of an American edition of Dr. Carpen- 
ter's recent extended compilation on Physiology. ' It is said that the cele- 
brated Mme. Mara was able to sound one hundred diferent intervals between 
(xoithin the limits of) each tone. The compas of her voice was at least three 
octaves, or twenty-one tones; (notes;) so that the total number of (minute) 



THE TREMOR OF THE VOICE. 357 

What has been said of the ascent by the tremulous scale, is true 
of its downward progress. Whichever of these courses the itera- 
tions may take, either by the linear step of a tone, or wider inter- 
val, or by direct tittelar rise or fall, the concrete of the tittles, as it 
apears to me, takes the same direction ; nor have I ever perceved, 
in the ordinary uses of the voice, that the iterations of the tremor j 
and the rapid concrete, move in directions contrary to each other. 

The tremor, then, consists of abrupt impulses, or tittles of mo- 
mentary duration, separated by momentary discrete intervals ; the 
tittles having a rapid concrete of some interval of the scale, and 
moving by very minute intervals, both in a rising and faling 
direction. 

That the tremor is so constructed, may be ascertained by ex- 
periment ; for the tremulous iteration can be continued on a level 
line; or caried upward or downward, by an alternate line and 
step of radical change on the diatonic scale; or directly by tittelar 
skip, to the lowest audible pitch, and to the highest point of the 
falsete. And further, that the constituent tittles of the tremor, 
however momentary, have each an isuing rapid concrete interval, 
may be proved by trial ; for the plaintive efect of the concrete 
semitone may be heard on every part of the course of the tremor, 

intervals was twenty-one hundred, all comprised (produced) within an ex- 
treme variation of one-eighth of an inch ; (in the glotis ;) so that it might be 
said that she was able to determine (or acurately to execute, and as I consider 
it, to perceve the efect of) the contractions of her vocal muscles to nearly the 
seventeen-thousandth of an inch.' 

Here is, as to execution and efect, a most extraordinary power. If how- 
ever, the Contributor to this work, who records the instance, and who apears 
to have read every treatise on the voice, but one$ would just look into our 
unvalued work, of which there is a copy in the British Museum, he might 
perhaps agree with us in the conclusion, that by the division of a tone into 
one hundred parts, the iteration of the tittles, by imediate rise or fall, being 
so close, they could only be heard, as a continuous or concrete sound. The 
greater tone of the scale is theoreticaly divided into nine parts, called comas ; 
and as even this ninth part, in our belief, as well as in the words of Rousseau 
' is to ears like ours, useles except in (theoretic) calculation :' what ear was it, 
perceved the fraction of a hundredth, and numericaly folowed it up or down 
in tremulous progresion thru a single tone? 

Perhaps the present Note may in part, ilustrate what is said in the fifth 
section, on the groundles authorities, and careles conclusions, so comon in 
vocal Physiology. 



358 THE TREMOR OF THE VOICE. 

in rising the whole compas of the voice. And in like manner the 
plain effect of the tonej and the interrogative expresion of the 
third, or fifth, or octave, may by the rapid interval be given to this 
rising tremor. Now as the tittelar interval is not a semitone, tone, 
or wider interval, but a very minute space, without any known 
expresion, the expresive efect cannot be produced by this minute 
skip, but must be from a rapid transit of the concrete of the tittles 
thru those greater intervals respectively. 

It was in reference to this peculiar progresion, so diferent from 
the concrete movement^ from the discrete steps of the diatonic 
scale j and from the purely semitonic sucesion of the chromatic, 
that I ventured, in the first section, to call this discrete and chat- 
ering variation of pitch, the Tremulous scale. It is scarcely neces- 
ary to add that the rapid concrete of the tremor, from its momentary 
duration, is restricted to its simple rise, and fall. The tittelar skip, 
besides the simple direct rise and fall by its minute interval, takes, 
in its progres, the course of contrary flexure into the wave. This 
wave of the tittelar course by the tremor has all the forms of the 
smooth concrete wave ; while the rapid concrete still acompanies 
the tittles on their winding progres. 

To those who think, we have unecesarily distinguished Abrupt- 
nes from Force, in our general arangementj we must remark, that 
in the comparatively feeble, but instantaneous explosion of the 
tittle, there is, to me at least, an example of Abruptnes, as an in- 
dependent Mode; and its peculiar voice gives here the esential 
and sole characteristic of this aparently explosive radical function ; 
which does no more resemble the comon perception of force and 
its uses, than an imutable sylable resembles the perception of long 
quantity, or a mathematical point, that of the continuation of a 
line. However it may be aranged, we practically maintainj that 
Abruptnes is an important function of speech, and elocutionists 
who have used it instinctively, will best fulfil their purposes, when 
asisted by analysis, nomenclature, and rule. 

The expresive power of the tremor, is shown in the functions 
of Laughter and Crying. 

The pure and imarticulated act of Laughter consists in the use 
of the tremulous scale, both in its tittelar skips, and in its rapid 
concrete. Its rapid concrete may be any of the intervals of the 



THE TREMOR OF THE VOICE. 359 

scale, except the semitone and minor third ; its tittelar skip may 
pass either by the step of the diatonic scale, or directly upward or 
downward, or in the chatering turn of the wave, thru the whole 
compas of the voice. In speaking of the intonation of imutable 
sylables, it was shown, that the rapid concrete, imeasurable directly, 
as an interval of the scale, is yet recognized by its characteristic 
efect: and the Reader may practically aply the principle, in dis- 
criminating the intervals used in laughter. 

When the concrete pitch is a tone, and the iteration is continued 
on a level line, especialy if that line is in the lower range of pitch, 
the function may indeed bear the name of laughterj yet it will be 
only a phlegmatic chuckling in the throat. When the concrete is 
still in the tone, if the line of tittelar skips continuously rises and 
falls a second or a third, forming what may be called a tittelar wave, 
the expresion of the laugh will become more varied and sprightly. 
When the third or fifth is used in the concrete pitch, and the tit- 
telar skips are caried upward and downward, as a wave on the 
wider intervals of the scale, it produces the gayest, and most vivid 
expresion. 

Laughter is generaly on one of the tonic elements. It may 
however be executed on the subtonics, and even on the atonies in 
a whispering breath. On the atonies, its tittelar skip if I do not 
mistake, rises and falls, by the scale of whisper, described in the 
fifth section. It is made on all parts of the scale, within the 
compass of the voice, tho it generally afects the falsete. Suposing 
the vocality of voice to be given j laughter will be most agreeable, 
and varied, when it consists of a moderate tremor of well acented 
tittles, distinctly separated from each other ; and pasing, by tittelar 
skip, thru simple intervals and the wave ; with a concrete pitch, 
moving in sucesion, by simple rise and fall, on every interval 
except the semitone, and minor third; the expresion being still 
further varied by a sweling, or medium force, on the tittelar skips, 
as they pass thru their waves. 

Crying is an imarticulated movement by the simple rise and 
fall of the semitone, and perhaps the minor third, or by the direct 
or inverted wave of these intervals. The act of crying has two 
forms : it may be in the concrete, or in the tremulous scale. In- 
fants, when they do not use the protracted note, cry in the first 



360 THE TREMOR OF THE VOICE. 

maner, with a prolonged semitonic wave, on some tonic element. 
It is a long time before the tremor is heard in their voice. The 
first step towards it, is in the convulsive catch of sobbing. By 
degrees this increases in frequency, and the cry becomes thereby, at 
last composed of the iteration of the tremor. 

The tremulous function of crying, like that of laughter, con- 
sists of an iteration and a concrete. The tittles, each with its 
isuing, and rapid concrete-semitone, or perhaps minor third, may 
sucesively ascend or descend the whole compas of the voice, by 
the same kind of movement used in laughter ; for the plaintive 
expresion in crying procedes from the rapid concrete of the semi- 
tone, not from any sucesion of the iterations ; which, in the act of 
crying, may take their course on the wider intervals and waves. 

It sometimes hapens that children while crying in the tremu- 
lous- movement, do from some momentary turn of perception, and 
without a cesation of the tremor, pass into laughter. Here a 
cheerful state necesarily produces a change of the concrete, from 
the semitone, or perhaps minor third, to the second, or other wider 
interval. And in a paroxysm of hysteria, the transition between 
these diferent means of gay and of plaintive expresion, is so fre- 
quent and rapid, that the hearer is sometimes at a momentary loss, 
to say which function is in operation. In this case, a person may 
properly be said to laugh and cry in the same continued breath. 

The ordained collection of the semitone and perhaps the minor 
third, either in a simple-prolonged or in a tremulous form, with 
the state of distres is so close, that even if the act of crying may 
have ceased, yet with a continuation of the distres, there will be a 
kind of mental hiatus in an attempt to return to the diatonic into- 
nation of speech.* Some persons, for the sake of sport or fraud, 
play the part of crying. If they are habitual mimics, and have 
flexible voices, they may perhaps succede. But nature is always 
honest, when humanity, her intended, but too often false repre- 
sentative, is ever ready to deceve. Diplomatic Craft is so well 
aware, his lips may mar the underplots of his purpose, that he is 
obliged to guard the ruling pasion by circumspection, or brevity, or 

* Perhaps, some of my Headers may recolect such a case having ocured to 
themselves, in childhood. I make the remark from my own experience, at 
that uncorupted period, when instinct, as yet, had kept us all alike. 



THE TKEMOR OF THE VOICE. 361 

silence. When mirth or sorow is within us, it is hard to restrain 
its instinctive expression. He who would be to the inteligent 
observer, an unsuspected hypocrite in his voice, must mask even 
his thots and pasions to himself. 

After the preceding acount of the use of the tremor upon single 
elements, in the functions of laughter and crying, it is not dificult 
to /o?'e-hear the efect of its aplication to sylabic uterance in the 
curent of discourse. 

When the semitone, in the chromatic melody of speech, is given 
under the form of tremor, it increases the plaintive efect of the 
simple concrete. For as crying expreses the highest degree of dis- 
tress, its tremulous characteristic is employed in speech, to denote 
an exces of complaint and grief, and the ardor of tender supina- 
tion. Tremulous semitonic speech is the utmost practicable crying 
upon words. 

To engraft the tremor on a sylable, let the Reader pronounce 
the word name, in a tremulous movement in the simple rise, or 
fall, or wave of the semitone. He will hear, the tremor equaly 
on the tonic a, and on each of the two subtonic elements. 

The tremor on the semitone may give a plaintive expresion to 
a single word : or that expresion may be continued on ocasional, 
yet limited portions of discourse. If this restricted aplication de- 
serves a name, it may be called the Tremulous-chromatic melody. 
The folowing stanza, in which the tremor of age is suposed to 
be joined with that of suplicating distres, may, when read with 
the coloring of dramatic action, aford a proper example of this 
melody. 

Pity the sorows of a poor old man, 

Whose trembling limbs have borne h-im to your door, 

Whose days are dwindled to the shortest span ; 

O give relief and heaven will bles your store. 

Here the tremor of the semitone may be aplied to every em- 
phatic sylable capable of prolongation, which is the case with all 
except those of pity and shortest : but even these may in a limited 
degree, receve it : for, it was shown formerly j particular purposes 
of expresion sometimes alow a slight extension of quantity on 
imutable sylables, and unemphatic and unacented words, that in 
dispasionate uterance, bear only the shortest time. 
24 



362 THE TREMOR OF THE VOICE. 

The ocasional use of the tremulous semitone upon individual 
words, will be noticed in the future section on Emphasis. 

When the tremor pases by its tittelar course, thro the rising 
or faling second, third, fifth, or octave, or their respective waves, 
it joins the mental state of derision, mirth, joy, or exultation to 
that of interogation, surprise, comand, or scorn, respectively con- 
veyed by the smooth concrete of these intervals. It aplies to 
speech, what is transferable from the function of laughter ; and it 
adds thereto all the meaning and force of its satisfaction. 

The tremor on wider intervals, and on the waves, is used prin- 
cipaly for emphasis ; yet in playful discourse, it is sometimes heard 
in continuation on more than one sylable, and ocasionaly even on 
short sentences. 

There is a use of this laughing tremor, as we may call its un- 
articulated execution on the second, third, fifth, and octave. I 
mean its employment in that hysterical exclamation, heard in 
exagerated scenes of the drama. In this case, the laughing tremor 
seems to be strangely subservient to every species of expresion : 
for there is scarcely an excesive degree of pasion, whether of joy 
or sufering, in which it is not naturaly, and may not with caution, 
be dramaticaly used. One can readily perceve why this vehe- 
ment expresion by the wider intervals, should denote the exces of 
those states of mind, instinctively conected with laughter ; but it is 
not at once manifest why the signs of expresion should be so mis- 
aplied, as to give the concrete tremor of the second or of wider 
intervals, to states that in cases of less excitement, properly receve 
the plaintive tremor of the semitone. Let us try to explain this 
seeming anomaly. 

The ocasions on which this hysteric laugh is employed, are those 
of the highest possible intensity of distres. By the rule of plain- 
tive expresion, the tittelar iteration, and the rapid concrete semi- 
tone should be used ; and with this the expresion does generaly 
begin. But as the pasion increases in vehemence, the voice is so 
far afected by its exces, as to disever the instinctive conection ; and, 
giving way to the habit of employing the wider intervals in keen 
and forcible expresion, leaves the hampering concrete of the semi- 
tone, for the free expansion and piercing energy of the third or 
fifth, octave, double octave or more, in its concrete and tremulous 



THE TREMOR OF THE VOICE. 363 

forms. This is the cause why in hysteria, which is usualy brought 
on by distress, or other congenial states of mind, the ordinary 
course of plaintive expresion is overruled ; and as the more moder- 
ate forms of this nervous excitement are signified by the semitonic 
intonation, it sends forth its higher gusts, in the concrete scream 
and yell of the widest intervals and waves, mingled with a like 
exageration of its tremulous energy, in the wildnes of an idiotic 
laugh : idiotic, because a motiveles and imbecile confounding of 
the laws of vocal expresion. Altho this hysteric expresion may, 
when judiciously aplied, be both proper and efective, in an ex- 
traordinary scene of the drama ; yet as it is generaly acompanied 
with considerable grimace, is strongly impresive, and can be well 
heard in the remote corners of the Galery, it is apt to be employed 
on the Stage, as a vocal trick ; especialy by the Actres, who with- 
out perceving its apropriate ocasion, which rarely ocurs, has yet, 
by ambitious practice, or nervous habit, a skilful comand over its 
mechanical execution. 

It requires more than comon facility of voice to perform the 
tremor with precision and elegance. Its full eficacy and graceful 
finish is acomplished, by giving it the greatest number of tittles of 
which the asumed interval is susceptible ; by making these tittles 
in fluent skips, with a distinct acent, with a ready progresion on 
the simple interval and the wave, and with a median stres on the 
waves of these tittelar skips. It may be aded, that the tittelar 
movement on long quantity, generaly in speech, and always in 
continued laughter, employs the wave. 

As this tittelar movement of the tremor is aplied to all intervals 
both ascending and descending, and to the wavej it has under 
these aplications, the degree and variety of their several characters. 
On a downward interval of the fifth, the expresion will be of a 
graver cast than on a rise of the same extent ; and on the rising 
second it will have less gayety than on the rising fifth or octave, or 
their waves. 

After the preceding view of the simple intervals, and of the 
tremor, the Reader will perhaps be able to recognize, and with the 
anticipative resources of science, even to fore-hear the efect of their 
detailed combinations. If with all I have said, he will not do 
this for himself, it would be to no purpose to do it for him. It 



364 FORCE OF VOICE. 

is an agreeable ofice to stand prompter to a pausing, yet a ready 
comprehension : but it is an irksome duty, to be obliged to push 
an unwiling intelect on to the last sylable of its part. 






SECTION XXXIY. 

Of Force of Voice. 

This Mode of the voice is subdivided into forms and degrees. 
These degrees, without much precision, are denoted in comon lan- 
guage by the words, loud, soft, strong, and weak. Indefinite as 
the rule may be, yet taking comon conversation as a dividing line 
between the strong and the weak, in speech, we might aply the 
terms Forte and Piano, as relative degrees severaly above and 
below it. 

Force may be aplied to phrases, or to one or more sentences, for 
the purposes of energetic expresion ; or to single words, and to 
sylables ; or to certain Parts of the concrete movement^ to distin- 
guish them from other words and sylables, and from other Parts 
of the concrete. 

Writers on elocution, and school books on the art of reading, 
give general rules for enforcing, and reducing the voice, in con- 
tinued speech. It is not necesary to swell the bulk of this volume, 
by transcribing them. We may however inquire, on what princi- 
ple various degrees of force are conected with the circumstances of 
the speaker, or with the state of his mind. 

From the wide reach of an intense exertion of the voice, there 
is an obvious propriety in its employment, when distance is pic- 
tured in discourse. The indication of nearnes, on the contrary, is 
well expressed by an abatement of that force. 

Secrecy mufles itself against discovery by a whisper ; and doubt, 
while leaning towards a positive declaration, cuningly subdues his 
voice, that the impresion of his posible eror may be least exciting 
and durable. 



FORCE OF VOICE. 365 

Certainty, on the other hand, in the confident desire to be heard, 
is positive, distinct, and forcible. 

Anger declares itself with energy, because its charges and denials 
are made with a wide apeal, and in its own sincerity of conviction. 
A like degree of force is employed for pasions congenial with 
anger ; as hate, ferocity and revenge. 

All thots and pasions unbecoming or disgraceful, smother the 
voicej with a desire to conceal even the voluntary uterance of them. 

Joy calls aloud, for companionship in the overflowing charity 
of its satisfaction. 

Bodily pain, fear, and teror, are also forcible in their expresion ; 
with the double intention, of sumoning relief, and repeling the 
ofending cause when it is a sentient being. For the sharpnes and 
vehemence of the ful-strained and piercing cry are universaly 
painful or apaling to the animal ear. 

In suposing why certain degrees of force are conected with cer- 
tain states of mind, we have perhaps ventured too far towards the 
presumptuous notion of Final Causes. And altho we may have 
therein transiently strayed, let us not forget the duties of Science. 
It is her office, first to inquire how things exist ; the knowledge of 
why they so exist, must be the last act of favor which time and 
toil will bestow. Our steps over the works of man, may go hand 
in hand with the comprehension of their final causes; for the 
author can tell us the narow purpose of their parts. But the 
great circle of acomodated final causes in Nature, will be unfolded, 
only in the last recapitulating chapter of her infinite revelation. 

In the section on Acent and on Emphasis, we shall speak of 
Force or stres on single words. Here we consider the remarkable 
aplication of stres, to diferent parts of the concrete sylable itself, 
as described and ilustrated in the second section. By experi- 
ment we learn, that the varied efects of stres are severaly per- 
ceptible, on the begining, the middle, and the end of the concrete 
movement, and when heard in hnediate sucesion at its two ex- 
tremes; that the same force may be so continued thruout the 
concrete, as to alter the characteristic feeblenes of the vanish ; and 
that while the relative structure of the simple radical and vanish 
remains the same, force may magnify proportionaly the whole of 
the concrete. 



366 THE RADICAL STRES. 

These streses we severally name, the Radical, the Loud concrete, 
the Median, the Compound, the Vanishing, and the Thoro stres ; 
as in the folowing diagram^ 

B § o § ■§ 2; :& 2 .gS | S 



o 



IHMI 



where I have visibly ilustrated the audible character of the forms 
of stres on the concrete, to be described in the six folowing sec- 
tions. The Eeader is however to observe, that for the proper 
Radical stress, which is not shown in the diagram, the initial open- 
ing should be represented proportionaly to the vanish, fuler and 
more abrupt than it is in the symbol of the simple concrete. 






SECTION XXXY. 

Of the Radical Stres. 

The Radical stres consists in an Abrupt and forcible uterance 
at the begining of the concrete movement : and we may perceve, 
in the peculiar character, and expresion of this important stres, 
a suficient ground for considering abruptnes a generic mode of the 
voice. 

The simple concrete, described in the second section, and here 
caled simple, to distinguish it from its stresful forms and from 
the wave, is represented in the above diagram, as having an initial 
fulnes ; but the function now under consideration is characterized 
by a more suden explosion, at the first opening of the voice ; the 
subsequent vanish being caried on in the diminishing structure of 
the simple concrete. So few speakers are able to give a radical 



THE RADICAL STRES. 367 

stres, with this momentary burst, and therefore able to compre- 
hend exactly, the description of it, that I must draw an example 
from the efort of coughing. A single impulse of coughing is not 
in all points exactly like the abrupt voice on sylables ; for that 
single impulse is a forcing out of almost all the breath ; which is 
not the case in -eylabic uterance : yet if the tonic element a- we 
be employed as the vocality of a suden cough, its abrupt opening 
will truly represent the function of radical stress, when used in 
discourse. 

The clear and energetic radical stres must be preceded by a 
cessation of the voice. There seems to be a momentary oclusion 
in the larynx, or somewhere, to speak with caution, by which the 
breath is bared and acumulated for the purpose of a full and suden 
discharge. This oclusion is more under comand, and the explosion 
is more suden, on sylables begining with a tonic element ; or with 
an abrupt one, preceding a tonic; for in the last instance, the 
articulative, if there is any diference between them, is combined 
with the vocal oclusion. When a sylable begins with a subtonic, 
or with an atonic which is not abrupt, the full degree of explosion 
is not practicable, as in manful, foster. If such words are pro- 
nounced with vehement stres, there is always an interuption of 
the voice after the initial element, m or /, in the examples j to alow 
the succeding tonic the full force of a radical explosion. This 
acount may explain more particularly the part performed in into- 
nation, by subtonic elements at the begining of sylables. It was 
said in treating of sylabication, that the subtonic does not always 
make a part of the concrete movement ; for should it have more 
than a momentary quantity, it is continued upon the same line of 
pitch, till the suceding tonic opens with a proper radical, and then 
finishes the concrete. This ocurs on most ocasions ; for were it 
posible to open a tonic with so feeble a radical, that it may seem 
absolutely to join itself with a subtonic, which has previously 
risen partly thru the concrete, still there is so much of the abrupt 
fulnes in the usual uterance of a tonic element, that it generaly 
asumes to itself the first point in the interval. 

When an imutable sylable, begining with a subtonic, is pro- 
longed by oratorical license, it can be efected only in two ways. 
By continuing the subtonic on a level line of pitch, till the short 



368 THE RADICAL STRES. 

tonic opening with its radical, completes the sylable with its rapid 
vanish ; or by protracting the short tonic, as the note of song. 
Of these, the first changes least, the character of the sylable ; but 
in each, there is a disagreeable drawling pronunciation. This 
may be exemplified on the element I in the words let and pluck, 
when so prolonged. We had some years ago,, a Player, from 
abroad, with so many shocking faults, that the Town, with unin- 
tended irony, was all in an uproar about his extraordinary powers ; 
and who, when quantity was desirable on these imutable sylables, 
would, instead of yielding to that imutable fatej give an afected 
drawl to the subtonic element. I remember, the whole philosophy 
of this Actor's Histrionism was included in what he and his School 
called l Identity : ' the meaning, or rather the empty mysticism of 
which, will be noticed hereafter. 

The power of giving a strong, full, and clear radical stres to a 
tonic element, is not a comon acomplishment among speakers ; yet 
the free and proper management of this abrupt function is highly 
important in elocution. Its two principal purposes arej to con- 
tribute to the clearnes of articulation, and to form the distinguish- 
ing acent and emphasis on imutable sylables. These sylables not 
alowing the slow concrete, and being incapable, as will be shown 
hereafter, of bearing the other forms of stres, the abrupt or ex- 
plosive enforcement of the radical, apart from intonation and 
vocality, is their only means for emphatic distinction. 

Having pointed out the purpose and efect of the radical stress, 
in articulation, this is perhaps the place to consider the means for 
insuring the distinct audibility, and elegance of sylabic pronuncia- 
tion. 

This subject has three divisions: the First embraces a consid- 
eration of the specific sounds, which the changeable decrees of 
human convention give to the alphabetic elements. The Second 
regards the subject of radical stress ; and the Third, an apropria- 
tion of the several constituent elements of a sylable, to the con- 
crete movement. 

The First of these maters is like a republican government, 
under the rule of any body : andj until some' extraordinary revo- 
lution shall bring every body to yield their discordant Wills to a 
convenient agreement; is therefore very properly to be excluded 



THE RADICAL STRES. 369 

from the discusions of a philosophy that desires to be exact and 
efectual in its instruction. How can we hope to establish a system 
of elemental pronunciation in a language, when Great Masters in 
Criticism, and the whole literary School, condemn at once, every 
atempt in so simple and useful a labor, and so easy, when once 
taken gradualy in hand, as the corection of its orthography. 

Suposing then the sound of the elements to be precisely what 
temporary authority has determined^ the clearnes of pronunciation 
will depend, in the 

Second case, on the efective execution of the radical stres. 
Although every element should be heard in the sylabic impulse, 
yet the tonic is generaly the most remarkable in the compound. 
The characteristic of the sylable, therefore, lies, in a great meas- 
ure, within this element ; and a full explosive radical stress upon 
it, contributes much to distinct pronunciation. It is this which 
draws the cuting edge of words across the ear, and startles even 
stupor into atention ; this, which lesens the fatigue of listening, 
and out- voices the murmur, and unruly stir of an asembly ; and 
a sensibility to this, by a general instinct of the animal ear, which 
gives authority to the groom, and makes the horse submisive to 
his angry acent. Besides the fulnes, loudnes, and abruptnes of 
the radical stres, when employed for distinct and forcible articu- 
lation, the tonic sound itself should be a pure vocality. When 
mixed with aspiration, it loses the briliancy, that serves to increase 
the impresive efect of the explosive force. 

Third. The principles of the sylabic compound, set-forth in this 
esay, aford aditional means for acquiring what is called distinct 
articulation. In order to insure a clear and striking uterance, the 
whole sylable should be not only suficiently loud, but each ele- 
mentary constituent, rejecting redundant elements, should be so 
distinct, as to prevent the posibility of confounding sylables, having 
the same tonic, yet difering partialy or universaly in their sub- 
tonics. This is efected, by distributing the time and movement of 
the concrete, properly among the elements of the given sylable ; 
and will be explained by a particular instance. I once heard the 
Actor, above aluded to, pronounce the word plain, by prolonging 
the voice on I, and then terminating the sylable, by a momentary 
transit on ain. And altho in this case, I was clearly audible, yet 



370 THE RADICAL STRES. 

the rapid flight and blending of a and n rendered the character 
of the whole sylable both faint and confused. One of the conse- 
quences of this imperfect pronunciation, and it was a comon fault 
with the popular Actor, was, that on turning his face from the 
audience while speaking, many of his words, audible as inarticu- 
late sounds, were uninteligible to an atentive ear, at medium dis- 
tances in the theater. A practice like this, obstructs the equable 
flow of the concrete, and overrules the proper aportionment of 
time to the constituents of a sylable. For when each element of 
plain, has its due proportion of time and of the concrete, the 
uterance of the whole word will be just and satisfactory. 

The principles of articulate uterance under this third head, may 
be exemplified in the folowing sentence : 

Not that I loved Csesar less, but that I loved Home more. 

Should we give emphatic importance to the word more, soley by 
the extent of quantity, and not by peculiarity of intonation ; and 
should this quantity be spread upon an unequal wave of the rising 
second and faling fifth, with a view to give a feeble cadence to the 
dignified extension of the word : then, in asigning the elements, if 
m rises by the second, and is continued downward nearly the whole 
extent of a fifth, the o and r being rapidly made at its closej the 
articulation will be imperfect. When the time of the wave is 
divided into three parts severaly about equal, and the m, o, and r, 
are respectively asigned to these parts, the word will be properly 
pronounced. 

Many imutable sylables begining with a subtonic, are, in the 
curent of dignified uterance, particularly in the reverentive style, 
sometimes prolonged beyond the limit of their solitary or gram- 
atical time. When this practice is asumed by oratorical licensej 
without a knowledge of this equalizing precept that should direct 
itj the aded quantity is generaly expended wholy on the initial 
subtonic. If the sylables not, met, rock, lit, that, and vie, are un- 
usualy prolonged, there is less departure from corect pronuncia- 
tion, by giving the aditional quantity to the subtonics, than to 
the tonics. Still there is a want of that distinctnes by which a 
sylable is imediately recognized ; for sylables are known in part, 



THE MEDIAN STRES. 371 

by the habit of their quantity, both in the absolute time of the 
whole, and the comparative time of their constituent elements. 
In each of the above instances, the time of the several elements 
should strictly, be about equal, but by suposition, they are not ; 
for when the subtonic is unduly extended, the tonic and the fol- 
owing abrupt element have only their proper momentary duration. 

And this disproportionate time of the elements, here asigned as 
the cause of indistinctness in speech, is still more frequently a 
cause of inarticulate pronunciation, in the Singing voice. 

In the instances of the words plain, and more, the time of the 
concrete should be aportioned equaly among the elements ; and 
this is necesary in the reverentive style, for the elegant and im- 
presive uterance of other sylables, having a similar construction. 
Yet we cannot give a universal rule on this point ; such indefinite 
sylables, as men, run, lin, and gel, having their prolongation on the 
several subtonic, will not bear adition to the short tonic elements. 

Radical stres is aplied to imutable, mutable, and to indefinite 
sylables. In the first case, the shortnes of the quantity produces 
as it were, only an explosive point of sound. It may be used on 
the initial of all concrete intervals both rising and faling, and on 
the begining of the wave. 

From what has been said, it must not be considered that radical 
stres is used, only to give the distinction of loudnes to imutable 
sylables; the enforcement is likewise apropriate to the various 
states of mind embraced by them ; and in the full energy of its 
abruptnes, is a sign of the highest degree of pasion. 






SECTION XXXYI. 

Of the Median Stres. 

The Radical stres is principaly efective in distinguishing imut- 
able sylables. Long quantities, admiting other means for atracting 
the ear, more rarely require the initial explosive fulnes. They 



372 THE MEDIAN STRES. 

receve their stres, with greater dignity and grace, from an enforcing 
of the middle portion of the concrete movement. 

Radical stres is an opening abruptnes after a pause. The 
Median is a gradual increase and subsequent decrease of fulnes 
in the course gf the concrete, similar to what is caled a Swel, in 
the language of musical expresion. There is this diference be- 
tween them. The swel of song is sometimes on a note continued 
upon the same line of pitch : whereas the median stres of speech 
is always in either an upward or downward concrete; or about 
the junction of these oposite movements, in the wave. 

This form of force cannot be used on all the simple intervals of 
the scale. And as it necesarily calls for an extended quantity, it 
is generaly aplied to the waves. Of the simple intervals, it is 
practicable, if at all, only on the fifth and the octave, slowly pro- 
longed. When a melody of the second or of the semitone requires 
the dignity of the median stres, it is always on the waves of these 
intervals. In this case the median stres is aplied to the middle of 
the course of the concretes ; or about the junction of the two lines 
of contrary flexure. And it is the same with the single wave of 
every interval both direct and inverted. If the median stress is 
aplied to the double wave, it is laid on the course of a downward 
or an upward constituent, as the wave may be direct or inverted ; 
for such constituent will be in each case, respectively the midle 
portion of its whole extent. 

The median stres is aplicable to the tittelar waves of the tremu- 
lous scale ; and in efect, only enforces the character of the tittles 
and their rapid concrete at the junction of the intervals of a single 
wave, or on the midle constituent of a double one. When so 
employed, it gives energy to the expresion of the tremor, and 
afords variety to the ear. 

Inasmuch as force under any form, may be used with other 
means of expresion, its principal purpose in combination, is to 
extend the power of those other means. The median stres on the 
wave of the second gives dignity to the diatonic melody ; on the 
wave of the semitone, it increases its plaintivenes ; on the down- 
ward fifth and octave, if practicable, it adds to the degree of its 
wonder or positivenes ; on the rising fifth and octave, if practi- 
cable, it sharpens interogation ; and on the wider waves gives dig- 



THE MEDIAN STHES. 373 

nity and force to their several expresions. We have said, the 
radical stres has an energy sometimes amounting even to violence. 
But the median, now under consideration, sets-forth intensity of 
voice, with greater dignity, and elegance, than all the other forms 
of force. The radical stres having an abrupt opening, and the 
vanishing, as will be shown presently, having a suden termination, 
there is a sharp earnestnes in their maner, not conveyed by the 
median ; the aim and power of which ' in the very torent of ex- 
presion/ is to l beget a temperance that may give it smoothnes.' 

Here pardon me, Reader, when I pass from instruction to 
eulogy. 

If she could now be heard, I would point in ilustration to 
Britain's great Mistres of the voice. Since, alas, that cannot be, 
let those who have not forgoten the stately dignity of Mrs. Siddons, 
bear witnes to the efect of the graceful vanish of her concrete, and 
of that sweling voice of median energy, by which she richly en- 
forced the expresion of joy, and surprise, and indignation. Yet 
why should I be so sparing in praise, as to select her eminent 
exemplification of the single subject before usj when it seems to 
my recolectionj a whole volume of elocution might be taught by 
her instances. 

It is aparently a partial rule of criticism, but when drawn from 
delicate perceptions, enlightened by cultivation, it is the bestj to 
estimate the merit of Actors, by their power of audibly represent- 
ing the varied thot and pasion of their language, which the con- 
senting thot, and pasion of the hearer is whispering to itself. 
This is the rule, that in my early days of ignorance, but not of 
unmindful inquiry, set up this great Woman's voice, as a miror 
for every trait of natural expresion, in which one might recognize 
his deep, unutered sympathy, and love the flatering picture as his 
own. All that is smooth, and flexible, and various in intonation, 
all that is impresive in force, and in long-drawn time, all that is 
apt upon the countenance, and consonant in gesture, gave their 
united energy, gracefulnes, grandeur, and truth, to this one great 
model of Ideal Elocution. Her's was that hight of excelence, 
which, defying mimicry, can be made perceptible in character only 
by being equaled. 

Such was my enthusiastic yet unsatisfied opinion, before a 



374 THE MEDIAN STRES. 

scrutiny into speech had developed a boundles scheme of criticism 
and instruction ; which, in admiting that Nature may hold within 
her laws, the unrevealed power of producing ocasional instances 
of rare acomplishment of voice ; yet asures us, that nothing except 
the influence of some system of principles, founded on a knowl- 
edge of those laws, can ever produce multiplied examples of ex- 
celence, or give to any one the perfection of art. There is a per- 
vading energy in Observative Science which searches, discovers, 
gathers-together, co-aranges, still amplifies, and completes; and 
which all the means of uninstructed efort can never reach. I do 
not wish to be asked, how this ' most noble mother ' of her Art, 
with only those unwriten ordinations of nature, that still alowed 
her to incur the dangers of the scanty doctrines of her Schoolj 
would be acounted by the side of another Siddons, making her 
selections with propriety and taste, from the familiar rudiments, 
and measurable functions of the voice ; and able, by the authority 
of a directive and unindulgent discipline, to be a wary critic over 
herself. With a full reliance on the surpasing eficacy of scientific 
instruction, still, in the contentment of recolection, I would not 
wish to answer this question. 

The vision of the Great Actress is before me ! If I am beset 
by an ilusion, which another hearing might dispel, I rejoice to 
think I can never hear her again.* 

* In the title 'most noble mother,' I refer to the salutation of Coriolanus to 
Volumnia: for it is in this character Mrs. Siddons always comes like a speak- 
ing picture, upon my memory; embodying the pathos, the matron dignity, 
and the indignation, together with the other moral solemnities of the scene 
of intercesion in the Volcian camp. 






THE VANISHING STRES. 375 

SECTION XXXVII. 

Of the Vanishing Stres. 

Our description of the simple concrete of speech, represented it 
with an initial fulnes, and a gradual decrease. The reverse con- 
struction indicated by the term of this Stres, does change the simple 
form of the concrete : but I thot, even with its verbal contrariety, 
it would be more imediately inteligible, if not more exactly de- 
scriptive of the function, than any other less simple name. The 
vanishing stres is an aplication of force to the end of the con- 
crete, both in its rising and faling direction. This must necesarily 
give a fulnes, with something like an abrupt termination, at the 
place of the vanish. 

The peculiar vocal efect of the vanishing stres may be ilustrated 
by the function of Hicup. This hie, catch, ' hitch' -cough, or hex, 
as formerly caled, has a conventional name, that by etymology, 
describes its very formation ; and from its being instinctively 
practicable, may be the subject of experiment. The hiccough or 
hicup, then, is produced by the gradual increase of the gutural 
sound, until it is sudenly obstructed by an ocluded catch, somewhat 
resembling the element k, or g ; and if it be compared with a 
single efort of the comon cough, the abruptnes in each will re- 
spectively exemplify the reverse diference between the vanishing 
and the radical stres : for the comon cough has the full acented 
opening of a radical, and the hicup, a full acented closing at the 
place of the vanish. The hicup however, does not, in all points, 
resemble the proper vanishing stres of speech, except the sylable 
which bears the stres, terminates with an abrupt element. The 
hicup may be made on all intervals of the scale. In ordinary 
cases, it asu'mes that of the second or third ; but when atended 
with great distres, as sometimes hapens in disease, it is heard in 
the plaintive interval of the semitone. 

The efect of the vanishing stress may be heard in the speech of 
the natives of Ireland ; many of whom aply it to the simple rise, 
or fall, or to the wave, on all the principal words of a sentence. 



376 THE VANISHING STRES. 

It is this function which produces that quick and peculiar jerk 
of sylabic sound, in the earnest pronunciation of the ignorant 
ranks of that peculiar People. 

The vanishing stres is practicable on all the rising and faling 
intervals of the scale. On the wave, it is aplied to the last con- 
stituent. 

This stres, as one of the forms of force, gives to the several 
intervals, a more atractive power over the ear, than belongs to 
their simple concretes. If perceptible at all, on the plain inex- 
presive second, it adds that Irish jerk which only deforms without 
enforcing speech. On the rising third, fifth, and octave, it gives 
intensity to their interogation. On the downward course of these 
intervals, it increases the degree of surprise and positivenes ; and 
on the wave, joins force to the expression of its various forms. 

The efect of the vanishing stress on a semitone, may be heard 
in the act of Sobing. This is made on a concrete gutural sound, 
gradualy increasing in force and terminated in some cases by the 
ocluded catch. The vanishing stres on the semitone in discourse, 
is as it were, a sobing upon words, and serves to mark intensively, 
the plaintive expresion of the simple concrete. 

The character of discourse ocasionaly requires so quick a time, 
that only the simple rise or fall can be employed ; and yet, it 
may be necesary to designate clearly, the terminative point of 
the interval. This is acomplished by the vanishing stres. For a 
hasty uterance of complaint or interogation, which has time for 
flight only in one direction, will, in marking emphaticaly the 
extent of the interval, aply this terminative force to the simple 
rise or fall of the semitone, third, fifth, or octave. 

It was saidj the radical stres is efective, principaly in distinguish- 
ing imutable sylables. On these the vanishing stres is not coniza- 
ble. It requires a longer quantity ; and its aplication thereon, gives 
an equal degree of force with the median stres ; but it has much 
less dignity and grace than the gradual swell of this' last named 
elegant maner of forcible expresion. 



THE COMPOUND STRES. 377 

SECTION XXXVIII. 

Of the Compound Stres. 

Besides the obvious effect of stres, when laid exclusively on 
the begining, or midle, or end of the concrete, the cultivated and 
atentive ear recognizes the abrupt opening of the radical, and the 
full termination of the vanishing stress, when used in sucesion on 
the same sylable, both in a rising and faling direction. The best 
reference, for ilustrating this Compound stres, is to what vocalists 
call a Shake : for I shall show hereafter, that the characteristic 
of this Grace of Song, consists in a rapid iteration of the concrete 
of speech, when impresed with both the radical, and vanishing 
streses. 

The compound stress, tho never aplied to the narow intervals of 
the scale, is distinguishable, on the wider spaces of the fifth, and 
octave. It may likewise be executed on the various forms of the 
wave ; the final stres being then laid on the last constituent. 

After what has been said respectively of the radical and the 
vanishing stres, this under consideration being a compound of 
themj it is scarcely necesary to add, that it more forcibly denotes 
the state of mind singly indicated by each constituent. This alter- 
nation of the radical, with the vanishing stres, is beautifuly ex- 
emplified in the rapid shake of song, and may be deliberately 
executed on a long sylable, in the speaking voice ; yet its com- 
pound function cannot, on a short quantity, be distinguished from 
the simple radical abruptnes ; nor is there in this case, time for its 
execution. 

Let us supose, a sylable of long quantity embracing an angry 
or authoritative inquiry ; and that the fifth, with prolonged into- 
nation, is the interval chosen for this interogative. The force 
required here as the sign of anger or authority, would be repre- 
sented by the radical stres ; the ful-marked extent of the interval 
under the increased force of the vanish, would give a coresponding 
energy and impresiveness to the interogation. The compound stres 
is however, by no means an agreeable form of force. There is a 
25 



378 THE THOROUGH STRES. 

snapish rudenes in its character, that should always be avoided by 
a good reader, except on those rare ocasions which especialy call 
for the peculiarity of its expresion. 



SECTION XXXIX. 

Of the Thorough Stres. 

This form of force on the concrete is produced by a continuation 
of the same full body of voice thruout its whole course. It may 
be aplied to all the rising and faling intervals, and in continuation 
to the several constituents of the wave. 

The character of this stres may be perceved, by continuing an 
octave, with the same volume of voice, during its whole course, 
as represented by the last symbol in the foregoing diagram^ and 
comparing its efect with that of the simple radical and vanishing 
octave, shown by the first. The peculiar character of this con- 
tinued volume, will not only be obvious, but the interogative efect 
of the octave will be greatly obscured by it ; for the true interog- 
ative interval is, from habit, known to the ear by its atenuated 
vanish, as well as by its extent. 

The thoro stres may perhaps be ocasionally used for some especial 
emphasis, on short indefinite, on imu table, and on mutable sylables ; 
tho it is then not distinguishable from the radical stres. Its pecu- 
liar character on long quantities, in phrases and sentences, is that 
of uncouth and rustic coarsenes ; and if I may so speak, its blunt 
impresion on the ear, seems alike related to the delicate efect of 
the equable concrete, as a rude sketch on the canvas, to the grace- 
ful lines, tinted color, and blended light and shadow of the finished 
picture. With an exception of the ocasions for its use, on shorter 
quantities, just stated, it is to be employed only for the comic 
personation of those, with whom, as a coarse deformity of speech 
it is instinctive; or on ocasions, when from those insuficiencies, 
Public-Schooling, Morals, Law, and the Pulpit, it may be sadly 
necesary to meet the brutal tongue, upon the field of its own vocal 



THE THOROUGH STRES. 379 

degradation. Without raising here, the blinding dust of argu- 
ment, on the moral question of returning good for evilj the rule 
is less disputable, that civility of voice is not always to be returned 
to its rudenes. For those, who by acident ever come into contact 
with the savage in civilization, know that a hard- voiced word of 
retort, to a ruf addres, has sometimes saved much subsequent 
verbal, if not worse contention. Just as a well-presented posture 
of defense to a menaced atack has, from some lurking calculation 
in a seeming courage, often prevented serious consequences of 
personal as well as national strife.* 

From time almost imemorial, every man, and every class of 
men has tried in vain, to satisfy the anxious inquirer, as to the 
exact sign, and comprehensible character of the true Christian, the 
honest Patriot, and the real Gentleman. In the last case, Aris- 
tocracy and Democracy, those eternal combatants, have always 
been the most remote from agreement. The later however, par- 
ticularly in Our Country of Equal Rights, Overbearing Corpora- 
tions, and Despotic Majorities, having come to a unanimity, has 
at last with a popular ' logic/ given the aceptable definition ; and 
terminated all invidious distinctions, by making every Man a 
Gentleman, and every Woman a Lady. Leaving others to review 
the Census of this vast and novel Genus, on those points that may 
have falen under their discriminating observation it is only our 
part, to perceve among all the generic similarities, some specific 
diferences of Intonation. For if that afable adress, that refined 
reply, that vocal invitation to a well-bred sociability, that delicate 
vanish which gently pases from the ear to the heart ; if in short, 
the kindly meaning of the Equable Concrete, is diferent from that 
clownish answer which figuratively repels us with a vocal frown, 
and from that coldnes of thot, and death of every complacency 
embraced within the rudenes of the Thoro Stressj then is he who 
has the gracious intonation which seems to turn the stranger at 
once into the friend, a world-wide diferent from that laconic Dog 

* Testimony might be brought to the fact, that nothing on ocasions, more 
moderates the incipient insolence of a blackguard with all his boldness, than 
the ready return of an asumed phrase of thoro-stresed and peace-making pro- 
fanity, from a modest individual, with clean and delicate hands and face, who 
did not seem to hold in readines, a warning oath as preface to a blow. 



380 THE THOEOUGH STRES. 

in office, with his surly No ; that fool-wealthy Ignoramus, with 
his bluff comand; and in mind as well as in voice, from the 
coarse and vicious vulgarity of that hitherto unknown species, in 
progresive creation, the American Rowdy.* 

* I say, hitherto unknown ; yet Ethnologists, sidled in tracing the wafted 
seeds, and the offsets of nationality, have hinted at the ' habitat ' of this ' pre- 
morse root' of the voicej in the pasture of our grufy ancestor John Bull ; or 
in the hunting and cricket grounds, and in the ' wasail braying-out ' on the 
Estate of the English country Gentleman, ' all of the olden time.' With this 
"Rowdy, of whatever origin, who practicaly personifies a compliment to our 
astonishing advancement in Morality, Refinement, Legislative Energy, Law, 
and in Statesman-Supervision^ the rudenes of the stresful concrete, is an in- 
born vice. Gipsies and thieves of the Old World have a conventional slang, 
for misleading the fearles search of justice. But the surpasing Rowdy of the 
New, knowing himself to be above the law, boldly writes his threatening 
titles on our walls, and openly proclaims the watchword of his conspiring 
Crew. Among these words, so caled from some low conceit or other, are Boy, 
and Sir. Both of these alow a delicate execution of the vanish. This how- 
ever is not suited to the Rowdy's character : and Nature, true to her signs of 
the good and the bad, directs him, by another instinct, to give these words, in 
the warning intonation of the thoro stres. This coming to the mouths of the 
populace, they have made an awkward imitation of the thoro, by changing 
it to something like the compound stres. And this leading to a division of 
the words into two sylables, has given us the vulgar slang of the streets, as 
we every where hear it, in Bo-hoy and Sir-ree. 

The full, and the hair-stroke lines of the graceful old coper plate leter, and 
some of the deformities of modern type, aford symbols for these diferent states 
of the concrete. A love of variety among Conventual Scribes, once perverted 
and distorted the Roman alphabet almost beyond recognition The same efort 
to overwhelm taste with novelty, is now in progres by the Sign-painter, and 
the Printer of placards. Among a thousand awkward oditics of the Typo- 
founder, we can find something just to our purpose. The well finished form 
of Roman capitals, and punctuation, with their full, and their vanishing lines, 
contrast remarkably, as in the folowing diagram, with their rowdy -looking 
counterparts ; designed under that Widely-Destructive Principle, recognized 
in Popular Taste j of ' Something New.' It is I must say, a notion ; but the 




Roman C elegantly pictures to me the equable concrete : the rowdy Type- 
founder's modern improvement reminds me of the coarsenes of the thoro stres. 
Altogether, the contrast brings to mind, the diference between the reported 
ease of hand in that graceful and celebrated linear scrol by Appelles, and the 
twisting turns of a crooked bilet. 



THE LOUD CONCRETE. 381 

I do not say, even if it may be often true, that the man who 
has no vanish in his voice, is fit for ' stratagems and spoils :' But 
I do belevej if Shakspeare had chosen to look as far into speech, 
as he did into thot, pasion, and languagej he would have seen that 
Nature has, in the human voice, her especial sign of the Boorish 
and Unruly, as well as of the Unmusical ' soul f and would, in 
some of his own fine analytic metaphors, if not with a mentivity 
aptly turned to explanatory science, clearly have described it. Nor 
is this beyond a just estimate of the natural power of his Pano- 
ramic Observation. 

In closing this section, we may once more contrast the rude in- 
tonation of the thoro stres, with the craving voice of the Hypocrite 
and the Sycophant, insinuating their several ways to authority and 
favor. The Rowdy, more true to his violence, uses the heavy 
stres, to alarm the unwary, and is then ready to break thru all 
oposition. The subtil ty of the others, without a warning ratle to 
the unsuspecting victim, abuses the delicate, kind, and honorable 
purpose of the social vanish, by its servile exces, and its puling 
aplication to every variety of sinister thot, with nothing so far 
from it as honesty and natural pasion. 



SECTION XL. 

Of the Loud Con&'ete. 

By the Loud Concrete, I mean that impresive stres which dis- 
tinguishes a given sylable from adjacent ones; the parts of the 
concrete still retaining the proportional structure of the radical 
and vanish. It is only what was called the simple concrete, mag- 
nified, if we may so speak, in similarity thruout its course, by 
emphatic stres. It is not obvious on a very short quantity ; the 
radical stres being there, the proper form of force. 

Altho it has no peculiar character of expresion, it will be refered 
to, in a future section, on Acent. 



382 THE TIME OF THE CONCRETE. 

All the forms of stres, here enumerated, may be aplied to the 
tittelar course of the tremor, in the simple intervals, and in the 
wave ; thereby giving a more marked expresion to the gayety of 
laughter ; to the plaintivenes of crying ; to the exultation of 
tremulous emphasis, whether in rising or faling; and to intero- 
gation. 



SECTION XLI. 

Of the Time of the Concrete. 

The radical and vanishing movement was represented as having 
an equable continuation of its time, and thereby distinguished from 
the protracted radical and protracted vanish of Song. 

The purposes of expresion sometimes demand a change of this 
equability of the concrete, to a quicker uterance of its begining, 
or midle, or end. This condition of time is closely conected with 
an aplication of the diferent forms of stres; for it is dificult to 
give stres without runing into quicknes of time ; and as dificult 
to give quicknes to time without marking the rapid part of the 
concrete with stres. The relation of these functions is most con- 
spicuous in the radical stres ; for its suden burst is necesarily a 
momentary quicknes of uterance. The median and the vanishing 
stres, when strongly emphatic, likewise cary with them a run of 
time ; for there is in these cases, an endeavor, however fruitles, to 
efect, on an unbroken concrete, something like the explosion of the 
radical. These fitful gusts of breath thru the radical, median, and 
vanishing places, necesarily ocur along with their respective streses, 
on all the intervals of the scale, and at those points of the wave 
where the stres is aplied. There may also be a compound quick 
time of the concrete, atendant on the compound stres, in the 
prolonged movements of speech. But perhaps this is only a 
refinement in observation. 

On the whole, regarding the time of the concrete separately 



THE ASPIRATION. 383 

from stres, it is not of practical importance, in expresion. It 
was my purpose to give a history of speech. This quicknes was 
perceved, and it is therefore transiently noticed. 



SECTION XLII. 

Of the Aspi?*ation. 

We have hitherto learned, how the five modes of the voice, 
Vocality, Time, Pitch, Abruptnes, and Force, together with the 
absence of all impresion in the Pause, do by their separate and 
their mingled influence produce the varied efects of speech already 
described. 

The works of nature are inexhaustible paterns of permutation ; 
and the function now to be considered, will show aditional means 
for diversifying the efect of those signs of expresion, heretofore 
described. The subject of this section does properly belong to 
the Mode of vocality; but having receved a place and name 
among the alphabetic elements, and having peculiar properties, it 
deserves a separate notice here. I shall therefore show that the 
element denoted by the letter h, or, as it is called, the Aspiration, 
has eminent powers of expresion. 

By caling h a mere breathing, some authors have asumed the 
right to reject this element from the alphabet. It may be said in 
truth, that aspiration, as a separate and unemphatic element, is 
feeble, and has not the tunable and flexile vocality of the tonics : 
yet while harow and avow owe the diference in their meanings re- 
spectively to the presence and absence of the elementj that breath- 
ing must fulfil the purpose of articulation, without conforming to 
the exact definition of it. Notwithstanding, the defects of aspira- 
tion cannot be denied, under the cold measurement of the grama- 
rian, it is still pre-eminently entitled to notice, as a powerful agent 
in oratorical expresion. 

The element h is slightly susceptible of pitch in the whispered 



384 THE ASPIRATION. 

scale ; of abruptnes, in a whispered cough ; and freely admits of 
extended quantity. In this form, it furnishes the expresive inter- 
jection of Sighing. It has, to a certain degree, the variations of 
force ; and under the calls of emphasis, is remarkably displayed 
on the median stres. Its force may be more efectualy exerted on 
the begining of words ; especialy those having universaly an ener- 
getic meaning, as havoc, horor, and huza. It is combined with 
most of the interjections, in every language. 

Besides the above mentioned instances of its expresion, where 
comon orthography has given it a literal place, it is in certain 
cases of emphasis, engrafted on the several tonics and subtonics. 
For tho aspiration is with its literal symbol, sometimes a distinct 
constituent of sylablesj it may as a mere suflation, be severaly 
united with other elements having a vocality, without destroying 
their individual characters. The vocality of the tonic is impaired 
by the union ; for the purity of a tonic element was negatively 
denned, by declaring its freedom from aspiration ; but the express- 
ive efect in this case compensates for the loss of purity. 

There is some unknown mechanism of speech, by which the 
■ strenuous pronunciation of a tonic element becomes semi-aspirated. 
If the word horible be deprived of its aspirate, it will be imposible 
to give orible, in prolonged and energetic exclamation, without 
restoring in a great degree, the initial aspiration. The ques- 
tionj how far this unavoidable combination operated to introduce 
the aspirated element, for the forcible expresion of mere animal 
energy, at the date of what is caled the origin of language^ we 
leave to the everlasting disputes of those who look for truth in 
conjecture, and who teaze themselves by the notional pursuit of 
undiscoverable things. 

Efforts of vociferation on sylables which do not contain the 
letter h, nevertheles assume the aspiration, gnd corupt thereby the 
pure character of the tonics. Nay, in the excesive force of such 
eforts, the voice is sometimes lost, as it is caled, from the atonic 
aspiration overruling the tonic vocality. The character of these 
united functions, when forcibly utered, may be ilustrated by the 
subtonics y-e, and w-o, respectively a compound of aspiration 
with the monothongs ee-l, and oo-ze. The other three monothongs 
e-rr, e-nd, i-n, when united with aspiration, become obscurely the 



THE ASPIRATION. 385 

basis of the several other subtonics. And while the subtonics are 
formed by the mingling of vocalities with aspiration, they may 
bear further aspiration, for the purpose of energetic expresion. 

The dipthongal tonics do not receve the aspiration with the 
same efect as the monothongs ; there being something in the char- 
acter of the former that prevents as great a change upon them, as 
takes place on the monothongs, by the union. 

It was shown formerly that whispering, which is only the ar- 
ticulated form of aspiration, has its pitch, upon a succesion of dif- 
erent alphabetic elements ; yet whatever may be the dificulties of 
this articulated intonation^ the simple suflation, when engrafted on 
the tonics, pases concretely thru all the intervals of the scale, and 
unites itself with every form of stres. 

To show how far this function asists in the expresion of speech, 
let us keep in mind what was said above, on the instinctive union of 
a vehement exertion of the voice, with its aspiration ; and consider 
further, two forms under which the simple aspiration is employed. 

One is a sort of facetious coment of surprise and incredulity, in 
comon use, consisting of an efort of aspiration modified by the 
tongue and lips, into what is caled, in the fifth section, the suflated 
whisper. The movement of this suflated interjection is that of an 
unequal direct wave ; the first constituent being a tone or wider 
interval, acording to the required expresionj and the second, a 
descent to the loVest audible pitch.* 

The other effort of aspiration, is made by the larynx alone, and 

* The Elocutionist has certainly not talked without his books ; but he 
seems never to have been concerned at not coming to his hearing, among 
their number and confusion^ and has been, and still is, sorely afraid of ad- 
miting a full and precise nomenclature into them. Our analysis now enables 
us to point out the form of intonation in the prolonged and derisive inter- 
jection, Whew, of the gramarian ; tho neither gramar nor elocution has taken 
the trouble to find it out, and to tell us, what it is. When the Header uters 
this suflated interjection, by a descent from a very high to a very low pitch, 
he will have an ilustration of what was said in the fifth section, on the scale 
of Whisper^ for this suflation, having e-ve at its uper extreme, and oo-ze at 
its lower, will prove, by the position of these elements on the scale, that it 
pases thru two octaves ; the rapidity of the concrete movement, as it seems, 
preventing the clear perception of the intermediate elements. In this case, 
the interjection difers from that described in the textj and is the suflation of 
whew on a double downward octave. 



386 THE ASPIRATION. 

constitutes the function of Sighing. It consists of a simple inspi- 
ration, followed by an expiration, more or less prolonged on a 
faling second or wider interval, or a semitonic wave, acording to 
the character and intensity of the expression. A sigh is the well 
known out-pouring of distres, grief, and anxiety, and of fatigue 
and exhaustion, both of body and mind. As these diferent cases 
include the general powers of expresion, in simple and natural 
aspiration, we can infer* what will be the efect when this aspiration 
is joined with the vocality of speech. 

It may seem, but can only seem, to be an exception to the con- 
sistency of nature, that a voice, which can asume the quiet form 
of whisper, should with changeful purpose, be found united with 
vocality in the most forcible exertion of speech. Yet aspiration 
conjoined with the vehement forms of stres, becomes one of the 
signs of the greatest vocal energy. Its union therefore with a 
rising or faling interval of the scale in the Natural voice, increases 
the expresive power of that interval ; and perhaps adds the efect 
of sneer to intonations, that in their purely vocal form severaly 
convey surprise, interogation, irony, and comand. 

Should this union of aspiration and vocality be given with an 
abatement of voice, aproximating towards a whisper or a sigh, it 
becomes the sign of earnestnes in various states of mind. The 
folowing lines, when utered in a pure vocality, will not have their 
proper expresion. 

Hah ! dost thou not see, by the moon's trembling light, 
Directing his steps, where advances a Knight, 
His eye big with vengeance and fate ? 

Nor would their purpose be efected by an aspirated vocifera- 
tion. But when subdued to a kind of union of the natural with 
the whispered voice, the earnestnes of the apealing interogation is 
at once, obvious and expresive. 

Should an abated voice be aspirated on the Tremulous move- 
ment of a second or wider interval, it may denote aprehension or 
fear. When this abatement is aspirated on a simple rise or fall, 
or on a wave of the semitone, it is an aproximation to the sigh ; 
and adds intensity to the plaintivenes or distres of the semitone 
on a pure vocality. When a tremor is superaded to the aspirated 



THE EMPHATIC VOCULE. 387 

semitone, the voice exerts its ultimate means, for denoting the 
deepest sadnes, without the assistance of crying and tears. 

Aspiration when combined with diferent forms of stres, and 
with the gutural voice, to be described presently, severaly denotes 
sneer, contempt, and scorn : hence the means of joining with nearly 
every interval of intonation the expresion of these various states 
of mind. Even the simple rising and faling movements, indi- 
cating inquiry, surprise, and emphatic afirmation, may thus be 
made contemptuous; the efect being more strongly marked by 
aspiration on the wave in its unequal form. 






SECTION XLIII. 

Of the ■ Emphatic Vocule. 

We learned, on the subject of the alphabetic elements, that 
when the articulative oclusion is removed from the atonies and 
subtonics, there is a slight and momentary but sudden issue of 
voice which completes their vocality, and is the only sound of the 
aspirated abrupt elements. This was caled the Vocule. It is a 
moderate degree of Abruptnes. Like all other voices, it is suscep- 
tible of force ; and constitutes the function named at the head of 
this section. The emphatic vocule denotes great energy ; and neces- 
arily folows a word, terminated by one of the abrupt elements. 

The vocules of b, d, and g, are vocal. Those of k, p, and t, are 
aspirated j yet under a forcible emphasis, are sometimes changed 
to vocality. The use of this unarticulated explosion, at the end of 
an emphatic word is justified only under a vehement state of mind; 
and cautious management is necesary to prevent its forcible uter- 
ance from pasing into rant or afectation. 

When an abrupt element precedes a tonic, the vocule is lost in 
the tonic, which then seems to isue directly from the abrupt 
element. In the word light, the vocule is distinctly heard at its 
termination ; but if t imediately precedes the tonic i, as in tile, the 



388 THE EMPHATIC VOCULE. 

vocule is lost, and t is then only a peculiar radical opening of i. 
This is a proper coalescence, except the abrupt element terminates 
a word. For in this case, a junction of the vocule with the tonic 
of a folowing word, may confuse pronunciation by destroying that 
clear limit which should give a separated individuality to every 
word of a sentence. This fault is sometimes even purposely 
asumedj to remedy a want of physical energy in uterance. Per- 
sons who atempt to give unusual force to their radical stress, and 
who cannot readily explode the voice on a tonic, avail themselves 
of the facility of bursting-out from the final abrupt element of a 
word into a succeding tonic. If the phrase bad angels, should re- 
quire force, either for emphasis, or for a distant auditoryj the ex- 
plosion of d into an would produce the coalescence bad dang eh, or 
ba-dangels. But as the arangement of elements is a casual thing, 
it must hapen that the same word will ocur in discourse, both with 
and without a preceding abrupt element ; and besides, the comon 
exertion of force does not require the coalescence. These circum- 
stances will prevent the effect of the junction becoming familiar 
to the ear, and pasing for a proper and constant character of the 
word. A forcible pronunciation acording to this method, will 
therefore sometimes create confusion in the perception of words ; 
and lead in most instances, to that momentary hesitation on the 
part of an audience, which prevents a ready comprehension of oral 
discourse. Let the phrase music sweet art, be pronounced in this 
manner, and the combination will present an image both ludicrous 
and contradictory. 

If what has been said, on the means for efecting distinct articu- 
lation, by a full and clearly formed radical stres, is strictly apliedj 
the designed purpose of this junction of tonic with abrupt elements 
may be acomplished without interfering with the perception of a 
clear outline in the boundary of words ; for this demarkation is 
necesary for distinct and dignified uterance, in the thotful purpose 
of an exalted elocution. 

In the rapid energy of coloquial speech, and of the pasionate 
haste of emphatic discourse, this coalescence of the elements is 
more liable to ocur ; nor in these instances can it always be avoided. 



THE GUTURAL VIBRATION. 389 

SECTION XLIV. 

Of the Gutural Vibration. 

In our section on the mechanism of the voice, it was said that 
the retraction of the root of the tongue, together with a closure of 
the pharynx, produces a contact of the sides of the vocal canal 
above the glotis, and gives a harsh vibrationj from the gush of air 
thru the straitened pasage. This peculiar sound may be made on 
both tonic and subtonic elements ; nor is their articulation much 
afected, by union with this Grating noise. I have caled this func- 
tion the Gutural Vibration, on acount of its aparent formal cause. 

This gutural function is practicable on all the intervals of the 
scale ; and it adds to their respective characters, its own peculiar 
expresion. This expresion consists in the strongest degree of con- 
tempt, disgust, aversion, or execration ; and these states are most 
strongly marked on the intonation of the waves. 

When the gutural vibration is given with an exploded radical 
stres, it makes the speaker himself feel, in its disruption, that the 
efect must spread widely around him ; and by this combined per- 
cusive influence must, with the fulest power of expresion, break 
thru the ear, and so to speak, into the very heart of an audience. 



Having thus described the peculiar forms and degrees of Vo- 
cality, Time, Force, Abruptnes, and Pitch, and having shown the 
aplication of force to the diferent parts of the concrete j we are now 
prepared to consider their various uses on single words and sylables, 
comprehended under the terms Acent, and Emphasis. This detail 
will form respectively the subjects of the two folowing sections. 






390 OF ACENT. 

SECTION XLV. 

Of Acent. 

Acent is defined in philology to bej the Distinguishing of one 
. sylable of a word from others, by the aplication of greater vocal 
force upon it. This is a true, but limited acount of acentj for it 
will be found that the acentual characteristic consists in a sylable 
being brought under the special notice of the ear. This may be 
done by force ; but it may be likewise efected with other audible 
means. 

In a mature language, no word utered singly, except as an elip- 
tical proposition, conveys any inteligible relationship or meaning. 
Acent, as we use the term, is an atribute only of individual words, 
and cannot therefore embrace what is properly caled expresion. 
When a word, either from force or other cause, denotes a remark- 
able meaning, it constitutes what is called Emphasis. 

If we have here acurately stated the diference between acent 
and emphasisj Acent may be described in general terms, to be the 
fixed, but inthotive, and inexpresive distinction between the sylables 
of a word ; and forming in every word of more than one, that 
esential and striking feature, by which thot or pasion is, when re- 
quired, emphaticaly conveyed. This simple audible-prominence 
of acent may be efected by radical stresj the loud concrete^ and a 
longer quantity on the noted sylable. 

And First. Radical stres is the apropriate acent of imutable 
sylables. The word iterated has four short sylables, with the acent 
on the first. Its brevity not admitting the distinction of a pro- 
longed quantity, or even of the loud concrete, the acent must be 
made by a suden burst of the Radical, into a momentary stres. 
The acent may be readily transfered to each of the other sylables, 
by giving the necesary degree of radical abruptnes respectively to 
them. 

Second. Sylables of suficient length to render the radical and 
vanishing movement conizable, admit of acentual distinction by 
the Loud concrete. In the word Padington, the three sylables 



OF ACENT. 391 

are of moderate length, and about equal. As the first has quan- 
tity suficient to prevent the necesity of adopting the explosive 
radical stres, its high acentual relief can be brought outj and 
readily transfered to each of the others, by the loud concrete alone. 
Sylables adapted to the loud concrete may receve at the same time, 
an adition of the radical stres ; the former however being adequate 
to the inexpresive purpose of acent, radical abruptnes is unecesary. 

As the Thoro stres may sometimes be aplied on a moderately 
short sylable, it might be asigned, as one of the means of acent ; 
but it is scarcely to be distinguished from the radical stres and from 
the loud concrete, on these short quantities^ and therefore does not 
here deserve a separate consideration. 

Third. When the time or quantity of one sylable excedes the 
time of another, that quantity, acording to our definition, may 
give an atractive or acentual distinction; and even unassisted 
by loudness or abruptnes, sometimes necesarily asumes it. The 
word victory, pronounced with the usual degree of radical stres 
on the first sylable, and the second subsequently prolonged, as if 
writen vic-toe-ry, has the impresive distinction which in this case 
may be caled the Temporal acentj postponed to that second, if 
utered with comparative feeblenes, and with all posible omision of 
abruptnes. Words which consist of sylables of equal time, such 
as needful, empire, farewell, sincere, and amen, easily undergo a 
change of acent to either sylable, by a slight adition to its length. 
The word heaven, pronounced as one sylable, heavn, has the acent 
in its long quantity : divided into two sylables of equal time, as in 
heav-en, the place of the acent is doubtful, or the word may be 
said to have two equal acents. 

These are the three means for acentual distinction ; acent being 
the prominent and fixed feature that identifies a word, independ- 
ently of any peculiar meaning or expresion. And as they are 
suficient to give importance to sylables, without denoting at the 
same time thot or pasion, which is the purpose of emphasisj we 
may perceve the line of separation between these functions. It is 
true, emphasis cannot exist without acent, for the emphatic is 
always the acented sylable; and the expresive power of intona- 
tion, time, and stres must give the emphatic sylable that atractive 
influence which constitutes the esential agency of acent. 



392 OF ACENT. 

I have pointed out only the radical stresj the thoro conditionaly 
on shorter quantitiesj and the loud concrete^ as the causes of acent, 
derived from force ; for the median, the vanishing, and the com- 
pound, are more comonly used as the means of expresion: and 
in the plain pronunciation of a single word, surely no one does 
employ these last named forms of stres. 

Notwithstanding all the kinds of acent here enumerated, are 
represented independently of pitch, still they are necesarily aplied 
on one or other of its intervals. In plain narative or description, 
the radical stres, and loud concrete, and perhaps the thoro stres, 
are joined with the tone ; and the temporal acent, when not unduly 
prolonged, may take-on the direct and inverted wave of the same 
interval. For this gives dignity to uterance by means of its delib- 
erate movement, without conveying any peculiar expresion incom- 
patible with the simple purpose of acent. This remark does not 
refer to acent on single words, which has no character either of 
dignity or of expression. 

The use of the three kinds of acent, being in a considerable 
degree governed by the time of sylables, it is desirable to know 
the circumstances which render them severally aplicablej make 
them easily changeablej and give them a predominant and con- 
troling influence. 

Sylables, with regard to their time, were aranged under three 
clases, The Imutable, Mutable, and Indefinite. Radical stres is 
the means for distinguishing imutable sylables. The loud concrete 
may be given to the mutable ; as they have suficient length for 
the display of force, without the necesity of an abrupt explosion. 
Indefinite sylables admit of the atractive distinction of the temporal 
acent ; and yet they are sometimes pronounced equaly short with 
the imutable. Thus lo in loquacity, and lo, as an emphatic inter- 
jection, exemplify the extremes of duration. Hence, the radical 
stres may sometimes be used on an indefinite sylable, in its shortest 
time ; as it is in the acent of the words, idlenes and orderly. 

Some words, consisting of a long and a short sylable, alow the 
acents of stres and quantity readily to exchange with each other. 
In the noun perfume, the length of the last sylable yields to the 
stres, with a slight extension of quantity, on the first : in the verb 
perfume, the stres as easily gives way to the temporal acent on fume. 



OF ACENT. 393 

Of all the means by which one acented sylable of a single word 
is embossed upon the ear, if I may so speak, in higher relief than 
others, the most comon is that of the temporal impresion. In 
English words the acented sylable is generaly the longest ; and 
the exces of length alonej without radical abruptnes, or an increase 
of force on the whole concrete, above the neighboring sylablesj is 
suficient to answer the purposes of acentual distinction. The 
majority of writers, without suficient examination, have resolved 
all acents into exces of force. 

Inasmuch as the radical is the principal form of stres for short 
sylables ; and as the loud concrete may be aplied on all but the 
imutable, it may be inquired, whether stres, or quantity has the 
greater influence in pronunciation, by its controling or excluding 
power. In most words, this predominant influence is readily 
changeable; as in Albano, Cordova, Ontario, comemoration, and 
purlieu ; the acent, of whatever kind, being in these instances as 
easily practicable on one sylable as on another. But in words 
with the arangement, and the habitual pronunciation, of beguile, 
indeed, delay, and revenge, the temporal acent cannot be de- 
prived of its supremacy, by a radical stres on the first sylable, 
except by an efort in exploding the first, and abreviating the last. 
For it is sometimes necesary to reduce the quantity of one sylable, 
that the radical stres may take the lead on another. The acent 
of the word Emanuel, lies in the extended time of the second 
sylable. Scarcely any degree of abruptnes can transfer the acent 
to E, while man retains its quantity. When this is shortened, 
the first sylable E, may, under a strong radical stres, be made 
the leading acent ; but the word will hardly be recognized in the 
change. 

In regarding the subject of acent, it ought to be borne in mind 
that a diference in the vocality of the elementary sounds, may in 
some cases, be mistaken for a diference in stres ; for to many an 
ear, ee-\, and a-le might seem to be surpased by ou-r and a-we. 
If there is that predominance, then vocality may sometimes be a 
cause of acent, or may asist its influence. 

The elements have diferent degrees of susceptibility, in receving 
the acent. The tonics more easily and conspicuously take-on each 
of its three forms. The abrupt elements are heard in the vanish- 
26 



394 OF ACENT. 

ing stres, and asist the radical explosion on the tonics; yet are 
utterly incapable of the loud concrete, and the temporal acent. 
The subtonics with little or no power, under the radical stres, 
fulfil all the purposes of quantity ; the atonies, tho heard in the 
emphatic vocule, never, in proper and unafected speech, receve 
acentual distinction. 

The impresive agency of acent upon the ear, is fixed in the 
pronunciation of the English language, on one or two sylables of 
all words, with more than one. It is an abundant source of va- 
riety in speech ; forms in part, the measure of our versification ; 
and when skilfuly disposed, by the adjustment of a delicate ear, 
produces with the asistance of quantity and pause, the varied 
rythmic measure of prose. 

Some gramarians and rhetoricians, with whom the inteligent 
Mr. Sheridan is to be ranked, have set-forth a rule, that when the 
acent fals on a consonant, the sylable is short ; and long when on 
a vowel. At school, I did not regard this great prosodial princi- 
ple : now, I perceve it has no foundation. For if acent is vari- 
ously produced by radical stres, the loud concrete, and by quantity j 
a distinction of literal place cannot make the suposed diference. 
The abrupt stres will always be made on a tonic, (or vowel,) not- 
withstanding the sylable may be opened on a preceding subtonic, 
or an abrupt element. The loud concrete must be aplied on all 
the elements without distinction ; and an acentual impresion by 
quantity must consist of the united time of tonics and subtonics, 
when the sylable is constructed with these diferent elements. All 
this however, is only a denial of the truth of the rule, on the 
ground of our own history of acent. Let us hear how the rule 
agrees with the fact of pronunciation. In the word ac-tion, the 
abrupt stres is on the vowel (tonic) a; for c (k) in this case, hav- 
ing no body of sound, is but the ocluded termination of a$ yet the 
sylable is short; and in re-venge y the acent or the greatest im- 
presion on the ear, is from the quantity of the subtonics (conso- 
nants) 7i, and 2/ij and yet the sylable is long. Language is full 
of like examples ; and from the ilustration they furnish, we may 
learn that the time of sylables bears no fixed relation to stres, nor 
to other means of acentual agency. The prevalent eror on this 
subject must be ascribed to the general cause of all erors ; a want 



OF EMPHASIS. 395 

of observation at first, and the asumption of notions, to prevent 
observation ever after, by those who adopt them. 

Mr. Walker has given a theory of acent ; making it dependent 
on the rising and faling inflection, as indefinitely described by 
him. If the preceding history of intonation is true, and if it has 
been clearly comprehended, the Reader must conclude, that acent 
can have no fixed relationship to a rise of the voice, or to its de- 
scent; for it is efected with every esential characteristic, under 
either of these oposite movementsj their junction into the wavej 
and under all the changeable phrases of melody. 

Much has been said by authors, on the aplication of acent. But 
with the sole means of the Tongue and the Ear, yet with scholastic 
authority all around me, I began this history of the voice, with a 
resolution to speak from Nature ; and not after men, too blind or 
too proud to consult Her ever-open, and Revealing Book of Speech. 



SECTION XLVL 

Of Emphasis* 

Emphasis is defined to be a stres of voice on one or more words 
of a sentence, thereby to forcibly impres the hearer with their 
peculiarity of meaning. Most writers, without seeming to consider 
the subject of much importance, indefinitely atribute to emphasis, 
a characteristic * tone ; ' and Mr. Walker beleved he specified this 
function under all its conditions, in his general, and vague acount 
of the upward and downward inflection. 

But authority aside ; let us try to do something to the purpose, 
by observing and recording. 

It was stated, that Acent is the fixed, but inthotive and inex- 
presive distinction of sylables, by quantity and stres ; alike both 
in place and character, whether the words are pronounced singly 
from the columns of a vocabulary, or conectedly in the series of 
discourse. 



396 THE EMPHASIS OF VOCALITY. 

Emphasis is either the thotive or expresive, yet only the ocasional 
distinction of a sylable, and thereby of the whole word, or of 
several sucesive words, by one or more of the various forms and 
degrees of Time, Vocality, Force, Abruptnes, and Pitch. 

As this notable function represents the various states of mind, 
it is aplied ocasionaly on the curent of discourse ; but it may be 
employed on solitary interjections, and on one or two words, form- 
ing an eliptical sentence. It wall apear hereafter, that emphasis 
is no more than a generic term, including specifications of the use 
of every mode of the voice, for enforcing thot and pasion. 

The stated means of quantity and stres which constitute Acent, 
being included among the enumerated causes of Emphatic distinc- 
tion, it might be infered, that in these particulars, acent and em- 
phasis cannot difer from each other. Quantity, radical stres, and 
the loud concrete, are the same in both cases ; but their purpose 
and power in the later, invest them with the atractive influence 
of thot or expresion. 

For a detailed acount of the particular ocasions requiring em- 
phasis when restricted to the means of stres, the Reader is refered 
to libraries. They contain rhetorical, and critical works, seting- 
forth this part of elocution, with comprehensivenes, perspicuity 
and taste. It is our aim, -to point-out and to measure the vocal 
means of this important function. 

Emphasis produces its efect upon the ear, by means of the vo- 
cality, force, time, and abruptnes of voice, and the varied intervals 
of intonation. The particular enumeration of these means will 
be given under the folowing heads. 



Of the Emphasis of Vocality. 

The diferent forms of the mode of Vocality were enumerated 
in the ninth section. They are variously, thotive or expresive, 
and some of them strongly afect the ear. Besides their use in the 
general curent of speech, they may be ocasionaly aplied as em- 



THE EMPHASIS OF FORCE. 397 

phasis on single words. I do not say, we are to include under this 
head, those questionable cases of what may be caled, the Pho- 
nology of Style, in which sound is said to be ' an echo to the sense/ 
The Reader may, on this point, consult Mr. Sheridan, and other 
writers^ and judge for himself, how far any individual sound of 
the alphabetic elements, may be considered as vocality, and aplied 
as emphasis. The folowing line from Milton's Lycidas, is said to 
be an example of this kind of expresion. 

Their lean and flashy songs, 
Grate on their seranel pipes of wretched straw. 

If the r, here repeated, be roughened by vibration of the tongue, 
it may be supposed to represent vocaly the harshnes of the Shep- 
herd's pipe ; but to me, the expresion, if expresion at all, would 
be lost in its afectation. And generaly, when cases of this kind 
do not consist in a resemblance of the sound of the word to the 
sound signified, or in an influence of the thot or expresion on the 
sound, they are often a false or a puerile figure of speech.* 

The gutural vibration as a vocality, is expresive of scorn and 
execration. The falsete may be emphatic, in the scream of teror. 



Of the Emphasis of Force. 

Under the Time-honored, we cannot call it a Satisfactory Sys- 
tem of Elocution^ Force or Stres seems to have been regarded as 
the principal, and if we except the vague pretensions of ancient 

* Buzz, hiss, and a few others, may he identical in sound with what they 
verbaly represent; but let not the Virgilian Scholar, impresed with theryth- 
mus of that apologetic maxim, in Roman robbery, of beating down the Proud, 
1 debelare superbos,' be misled into the notion, that the mere sylabic sound of 
superb, is, in itself, an echo, as the poor metaphor calls it, to the thot of mag- 
nificence, or grandeur ; for by the transposition of sylables, which cannot 
vary the expresive efect of the mere sound, we might have the superb percep- 
tion of a Royal Banquet, changed^ if we may make the disenchanting and 
unseemly contrasts to that of the homely table of Poverty, with nothing 
besides its Herb Soup and the convenience of a pewter spoon. 



398 THE KADICAL EMPHASIS. 

Acent and of modern Inflection, as the only means of emphatic 
distinction. Our system ascribes to it an influential but not an 
overbearing agency among the Modes of the voice. In the first 
section, Abruptnes is described as a peculiar function, and altho 
aparently a form of Force, is classed as a separate Mode. The 
influence however, of its character and ocasion is limited ; for it 
has no varied forms, and only a diference in degree. It might 
be aranged apart, and termed, the Abrupt-radical stres ; as at the 
opening alone of the concrete^ its efect as a peculiar function, and 
an independent Mode of speech is recognized. Still as the Radi- 
cal stress bears a congenial, or at least a clasified relationship to 
the use of force on other parts of the concrete, I have thot, with 
this prefatory remark 3 the term abrupt stres, even under its claims • 
to a separate arangement, might here be included within the sub- 
ject of Radical Emphasis. 



Of the Radical Emphasis. 

When an immutable sylable bears the acent, in a word remark- 
able by meaning, pasion, or antithesis^ the audible distinction can 
be made only in three ways ; by vocality ; a wide radical change 
in the phrase of melody ; and an abrupt enforcement of the radi- 
cal stres. The two former will be noticed in their proper places. 
The last is here ilustrated. 

And with perpetual inroads to alarm, 
Tho inacesible, his fatal throne; 
Which, if not victory, is yet revenge. 

If the strongly contrasted meaning of the word victory, is not 
represented by gutural vibration, by aspiration, or some other 
available vocality; or by a change of radical pitch upward or 
downward thru the skip of a third, fifth, or octave, the sylable vie 
must be raised into importance by means of the abrupt radical 
stres : at least no other form can be efective while the sylable is 
limited to its usual or conventional quantity. 



THE MEDIAN EMPHASIS. 399 

Let us not pass unoticed the impresive sucesion of sylabic 
quantity and pause in this closing line ; a prosaic rythmus, yet 
remarkable for the skilful comparison of the rapid time, and 
abruptnes of vie, with the long-drawn and gliding voice on venge ; 
the rest between the contrasted clauses, gradualy preparing the 
ear, for repose on the indefinite quantity of the terminative 
cadence. 

It is true, even an imutable sylable may be caried rapidly over 
any interval of the scale; still this rapid movement when not 
joined with the radical change, is of no emphatic importance. 

Altho the radical emphasis is here aloted to imutable sylables, 
it may be laid also on those of indefinite time. But these admit- 
ing of more agreeable forms, derived from quantity and intonation, 
they less frequently require the strong explosion of the radical. 

This emphasis is the sign of anger, positive afirmation, comand, 
and energetic mental states of all kinds. It is also the comon 
means of enforcement, whatever the time of the sylable, when 
discourse requires a rapid uterance. 



Of the Median Emphasis, 

The prominent display of the th5t or expresion of a word, by 
a gradual increase and subsequent diminution of voice, can be 
efected only on sylables of indefinite time. It has an importance 
equal to that of the radical stres, under a form of greater smooth- 
ness, dignity and grace. In the folowing sentence, the word sole 
conveys the mental state of warm and serious admiration, which 
this emphasis finely expreses. 

Wonder not, sov'reign Mistress, if perhaps 
Thou canst, who art sole wonder ! 

Here the median stres might posibly be executed on the simple 
rise and fall of the fifth, and octave, when slowly prolonged, yet 
it is more frequently, and more efectively made on the wave. In 



400 THE VANISHING EMPHASIS. 

the present case, the emphatic intonation of the word sole is given 
on the equal wave of the second or third ; the swell being at the 
junction of its two constituents. 

The Reader must observe, that in asigning the form of stres in 
this, and the preceding examples, I have been governed by the 
principles of speech, laid down in this volume ; and that I shall 
continue to aply them, in ilustrating the other forms of emphasis, 
included under this section ; for if these examples are read in any 
of those various ways, resulting from vulgar atempts in elocution, 
or from scholastic authority^ my meaning will not, in all proba- 
bility, be receved. Acording to our rule, the lines above quoted 
should have a plain but deeply admirative character, on the long 
quantities of its diatonic melody ; giving to the emphatic word the 
importance of greater time, either in the wave of the second, or 
third, or even fifth, and smoothly impresing it by the swell of the 
median stres. It is not within our present purpose j but it might 
be aded, that thou should have the wave of the second or third, to 
conect it both by quantity and intonation, under the emphatic tie, 
with sole ; and that canst should be set at a ditone above thou, to 
asist the emphatic tie, in carying on the voice, and with it, the 
meaning of the line. The intonation here proposed, may be taken 
as an example of the reverentive or admirative style. 



Of the Vanishing Emphasis. 

This form of stres is characterized by a degree of force, nearly 
equal to that of the radical emphasis. Why then are they dis- 
tinguished from each other by name ? The radical is apropriate 
to imutable sylables ; the vanishing cannot be recognized on them, 
as it requires some extent of quantity ; and while the hasty energy 
that prompts it, generaly asigns it to a simple concrete, with just 
suficient time for its execution, it is sometimes efectively made on 
a prolonged quantity, and on the wave. 

In the Mowing examples, this inversion of the simple form of 



THE COMPOUND EMPHASIS. 401 

the concrete niay be employed for the expresion of angry impa- 
tience in one case, and of threatening vengeance in the other. 

Oh ye Gods! ye Gods ! must I endure all this! 



Oh ! that I had him, 
With sis Aufidiuses, or more, his tribe, 
To use my lawful sword. 

The words here marked in italics, when pronounced with the 
vanishing stres, have that Irish provincialism which characterizes 
in a degree, this species of force ; the" final abrupt element in these 
cases contributing to the efect, by its Delusion. 

The vanishing stres is often used for an energetic, a peevish, or 
an angry question : in this way, the extent of the interogative 
interval, with its emphatic boundary, is more forcibly impressed 
on the ear. 

A cause of the peculiar expresion of the vanishing emphasis, 
may be this. From the ordinary habit of the voice in the simple 
concrete, it is dificult to produce a final fulnes and force, with- 
out giving rapidity of time to its execution : and this adapts it to 
the active state of mind represented by the vanishing stres. But 
we leave the remark to the observation and reflection of others. 



Of the Compound Emphasis. 

A degeee of emphatic distinction by force, stronger than that 
of the preceding forms, may be aplied to sylables of indefinite 
time ; for these, under the direction of a vehement state of mind, 
may receve their force from a union of both the radical and 
vanishing stress ; as in the following urgent call. 

Arm, wariors, arm for fight; the foe at hand, 
"Whom fled we thot. will save us long pursuit 
This dav. 



402 THOROUGH EMPHASIS, AND THE LOUD CONCRETE. 

The imperative words here marked in italics, may receve this 
double form of stres, either on a wide downward interval, or on 
an unequal-direct wave, with a wide downward constituent. The 
vanishing stres being here, on the subtonic m, requires more efort 
to produce its fulnes, than when the final element is abrupt. The 
compound stres is however, more particularly apropriate to the 
forcible emphasis of an interogation : and I here cite an example, 
from the scene of Hamlet's violence towards Laertes, at the grave 
of Ophelia. 

Dost thou come here to ivhine? 

To outface me by leaping in her grave? 

The great earnestnes of these questions, calls for the Thoro 
interogative intonation ; and the emphatic importance of the word 
whine, requires, or will admit the rising octave with the compound 
stres upon it. The radical abruptnes on i, sets-forth the threaten- 
ing rage of the Prince ; and the vanishing stres on n, conspicuously 
denotes the inquiry, by marking the extent of the interogative 
interval. 

We do not here regard the aspiration, to be joined with the 
compound stres, for the expresion of whatever contempt or scorn, 
the question may contain. 

It must be confesed howeverj the discrimination of this species 
of emphasis, in the curent of pronunciation, is not so easy, as that 
of the preceding. Still it is heard in the voice. Its efect is pecu- 
liar ; and by deliberate analysis is clearly resolvable into the double 
form of stres. 



Of the Emphasis of the Thoro Stres, and the Loud Concrete, 

In detailing the asignable forms and degrees of force, those of 
the Thoro stres, and the Loud concrete, were described as diferent 
from the rest, and from each other. 

But I am not disposed to insist upon the importance of these 
distinctions, for the practical purposes of elocution. They exist 



THE ASPIRATED EMPHASIS. 403 

however as forms of stres, and are perhaps used as emphatic signs 
of thot or expresion. Yet they are not, either in character or 
degree, when employed on short quantities, so distinguishable from 
the radical, and the compound stres, and from each other, as to 
require special exemplification. The peculiarity of these forms of 
stres, is relative to the time of sylables ; for when this is not so 
short as to require the radical stres, nor of suficient length to admit 
of a prolonged aplication of force, the required distinction may be 
efected on such moderate quantities by the loud concrete, or the 
thoro stres, as in the marked sylables of the folowing example ; 
where the first may receve the former, and the second, the later 
species of emphasis. 

This knows my Punisher : therefore as far 
From granting he, as I from beg'mg peace. 

On this subject, let it be kept in mind, that altho the thoro 
stres may be aplied, under the limitation of emphasis, to short, 
and ocasionaly to longer quantities ; yet when unusualy extended, 
in a curent melody, it has that rustic coarsenes, described in the 
thirty-ninth section. 



Of the Aspirated Emphasis. 

The earnestnes and other expresive efects of aspiration, may be 
spread over a whole sentence. The same expresion is sometimes 
restricted to a single word ; constituting the aspirated emphasis. 
Many words claim this emphasis from the esential energy of their 
meaning ; and these, in some cases have the literal symbol of as- 
piration, as havoc, horor, huza. A similar remark may be made 
on some of the interjections. I need not quote instances of as- 
pirated uterance in the exclamations of pasion, and in the pure 
breathing of a sigh ; the pages of the drama are full of examples. 

In the folowing dialogue from Julius Ocesar, the efect of aspira- 
tion in marking an earnest state of mind, is suficiently obvious on 
the words ay, and fear, set in italics. 



404 THE EMPHATIC VOCULE. 

Brutus. "What means this shouting? I do fear the people 

Choose Caesar for their king. 
Cassius. Ay, do you fear it ? 

Then must I think you would not have it so. 

And again, in the Tent scene, the earnest repugnance of Cassius 
is manifested by an aspiration on the word chastisement. 

Brutus. The name of Cassius honors this coruption, 

And chastisement does therefore hide his head. 
Cassius. Chastisement ? 

When aspiration is combined with the vanishing stres on a 
simple concrete, or on the various forms of the wave, it conveys 
an expresion of sneer, or contempt, or scorn. 

Aspiration may be aplied to sylables of every variety of time, 
to all forms of force, and all intervals of intonation. 



Of the Emphatic Vocule. 

When a word emphatic by force, terminates with an abrupt 
element, folowed by a pause, that slight issue of sound caled the 
Vocule, generaly receves a continuation of the force; and this, 
by its explosive efort, becomes the sign of pasionative excitement. 

On some ocasions, this vocule may be used, with a view to press 
into a sylable all the power of emphasis. But it comes so close to 
afectation, that I hesitated about its clasification, as a fault, or as 
an asistant enforcement of speech. 

I will not say absolutely, it should be forcibly employed in the 
folowing linej from the close of the third scene, in the third act 
of Othello : but when the word hate, is pronounced with the stres 
required by the pasionative state of the Moor, the emphatic vocule 
almost necesarily bursts from the t y in the organic opening of the 
atonic abrupt element. 

Yield up, O love, thy crown, and hearted throne, 
To tyranous hate I swell, bosom, with thy fraught. 



THE GUTURAL EMPHASIS. THE TEMPORAL EMPHASIS. 405 



Of the Gutural Emphasis. 

The excited mental states of disgust, aversion, execration, and 
horor, give their expresion to an emphatic word, by joining the 
gutural vibration to other means of vocal distinction. It is heard 
on the daily ocasions for revolting interjectives ; and sometimes on 
the comon curent of sylabic uterance. It might be properly used 
on the word detestable, in the folowing lines, from that dreadful 
malediction upon Athensj at the opening of the fourth act of 
Shakspeare's Timon; taking care to acent the second sylable, 
which does not bear a stres, in the measure of the line. 

Nothing I'll bear from thee 
But nakedness, thou detestable town ! 

When this gutural vibration is combined with the highest 
powers of stres and aspiration, it produces the most impulsive 
blast of speech. 



Of the Temporal Emphasis. 

If the quantity of an emphatic sylable is long, and admits of 
indefinite extensionj or the word has only an antithetic, or a thotive 
meaning, without the force of pasionj or when the distinction has 
the sole purpose of an emphatic tiej the impresion may be made 
by the influence of time alone, as on co, in the following addres. 

Hail holy Light, ofspring of Heaven first-born, 
Or of the Eternal, coeternal beam, 
May I expres thee unblamed? 

Or more conspicuously, in AbdiePs warning to Satan. 

For soon expect to feel, 
His thunder on thy head, devouring fire. 
Then, who created thee lamenting learn, 
When who can zmcreate thee thou shalt know. 



406 THE TEMPORAL EMPHASIS. 

In this constelation of temporal emphases, the impresive long 
quantity of the acented sylable of thunder, and of devouring, is 
given as an instance of the emphatic tie ; in which the relation of 
two subjects separated by a clause, is shown in its true vocal syn- 
tax ; and by which any ludicrous image, from too ready a verbal 
conection between head and devouring fire, may be obviated. 
Perhaps it will be saidj these words, together with the others 
marked in italics as emphatic by quantity alone, might receve the 
aditional distinction of a forceful, or of an intonated emphasis. 
It may be learned from the speech at large, that Abdiel is no 
longer the * fervent angel ; contending with the apostate. He is 
now the herald of an Almighty Decree. The earnest persuasion, 
with the alternate hopes and fears of argument, has given place to 
thotive admonitions, and to the solemn declarations of retributive 
justice; and the unimpasioned but conspicuous distinction by 
temporal emphasis apears well acommodated to the uterance of 
the i unmoved, unshaken, unseduced, unterified/ and prophetic 
Seraph. 

The Reader must have observed the close conection between the 
various vocal constituents ; and that with every atempt, it is im- 
posible to represent each separately, in the necesary ilustrations. 
We here speak of the simple extension of quantity as the means 
of emphasis, when in reality that quantity is in part efective, under 
the influence of some form of intonation. Extended time on in- 
terogative sylablesj on those of positivenes and comand, or of a 
feeble cadence^ has an intonation, respectively, on the simple course 
of the upward or downward third, fifth, or octave. But in plain 
temporal emphasis, like that of the above examples, and in a 
dignified diatonic melody, an extension of indefinite sylables is 
always through the direct or inverted wave of the unimpasioned 
second. 



THE EMPHASIS OF PITCH. 407 



Of the Emphasis of Pitch, 

It was stated generaly, in speaking of the pitch of the voice, 
that its several forms are used as the means of emphasis. We 
should now procede to the ilustration of this subject ; but as the 
rising third, fifth, and octave are signs of interogation, and as they 
have this character even when aplied to a single word of a sen- 
tence, we may inquirej how the Interogative efect in discourse is 
to be distinguished from the Emphatic. There must be even to 
the comon ear, something like an unwriten rule, to which reference 
is instinctively made ; for notwithstanding the frequent employ- 
ment of these signs in their diferent meanings, these meanings are 
rarely confounded. Yet our discriminations on this subject have 
in time past been fourfooted instincts; let us try to enoble them, 
by giving them the suport and the exalted step of knowledge and 
principles. 

The various interogative sentences were named in the seven- 
teenth section ; and on that division, the discriminations are here 
made. 

In the first case. As the emphatic use of pitch is on a single 
word, or at most on two or three, there is no liability to mistake 
emphasis, for declarative questions with the thoro intonation. In 
the second. It was shown, that the partial interogative is gen- 
eraly applied to comon, pronominal, and adverbial questions. 
These, even with only a solitary third, or fifth, or octave, cannot 
posibly be confounded with cases of emphasis on these same in- 
tervals, in sentences without the gramatical structure of a question. 
How far it might be proper to consider a partial interogation, 
made with a single interogative interval, as conjoining the condi- 
tions of interogation and of emphasis, thereby justifying the term 
Interogative Emphasisj may be left for future inquiry and arange- 
ment. In the third case. Many phrases having the form of a 
question, seem nevertheles to hang doubtfuly between an interog- 
ative and an asertive meaning. When such phrases can be fairly 
resolved into an interjective apeal, or a negative question, or one 
of belief; the positive state of mind generaly calls for an intona- 



408 THE EMPHASIS OF PITCH. 

tion in the downward concrete, as shown in the thirty-second sec- 
tion. With these questions emphasis by a rising interval cannot 
be confounded. The folowing examples are by editorial punctua- 
tion marked as questions ; but the conditions above stated seem to 
aply so clearly to them, that I would exclude the interogative in- 
tervals, and expres these virtual afirmations by a positive down- 
ward intonation. 

Cassius. What should be in that Caesar? 

Why should that name be sounded more than yours? 



Casca. What night is this ? 

Cassius. A very pleasing night to honest men. 
Casca. Who ever knew the heavens m'enace so ? 



Shyloch. Ay, his breast: 

So says the bond ; Doth it not, noble judge ? 
Nearest his heart, those are the very words. 

In the first of these instances, Cassius does positively mean, 
There is nothing in Caesar, nor in his name. In the second, 
Casca would say, It is a dreadful night ; the heavens were never 
known to menace so. And in the last, Shylock, by his negative 
question, does triumphantly declare, You know it, noble judge. 
If then instead of the positive, the interogative intonation should 
be aplied either thoroly or in part, to these phrases, their meaning 
would be obscured, or lost. Consequently, no case of rising em- 
phasis can be mistaken for such interogative constructions. When 
figurative questionsj those of gramatical construction, with a down- 
ward intonationj and when real exclamatory sentences, cary their 
expresion on one or two downward intervals, it may be made a 
subject for future inquiry, whether this case might be caled the 
Exclamatory Emphasis. 

We go on to enumerate the intervals of pitch, employed in 
emphasis. 



EMPHASIS OF THE RISING OCTAVE. 409 



Of the Emphasis of the Rising Octave. 

The concrete rise of the Octave on a single sylable in a curent 
diatonic melody, remarkably distinguishes it from others bearing 
the interval of a tone ; and its efect has the true character of 
emphasis, even without the excesive stres, heretofore considered 
almost the single esential, in the definition of that term. 

The Reader has been told more than oncej the intervals of the 
scale are apreciable, even in the momentary flight of an imutable 
sylable ; and that the expresion of the octave on these sylables is 
generaly efected by the skip of a radical, from the level of curent 
speech to the hight of that interval above it. The emphasis of 
the octave apears then, under the form both of Slow Concrete, and 
of Radical Change ; and let it be remembered that one of these 
diferent forms of pitch is always implied, when we speak of the 
emphasis of other wider intervals of the scale. 

The rising octave is employed emphaticaly, for astonishment 
and admiration, embracing inquiry or doubt ; and for the especial 
enforcing of one word above others, in an interogative sentence : 
but this rarely ; for there is a kind of mewl in its long-drawn con- 
crete, that excludes it from those elevated purposes of speech which 
it is the design of science to investigate, and of taste to approve. 

The octave sometimes expreses a quick, a taunting, or a mirth- 
ful interogative; and is rarely used in a calm, serious, and dig- 
nified question. It would perhaps be admisible in the folowing 
sneering exultation of Shylock over Antonio. 

Monies is your suit. 
What should I say to you? should I not say? 
Hath a dog money ? Is it posible 
A cur can lend three thousand ducats? 

From the temper of the two last questions, they will bear a 
thoro interogative intonation ; but the words dog, and cur, by an 
emphatic alusion to the previous rating of Shylock by Antonio, 
convey the exultation of revenge^ as well as an imediate antithesis 
to their former contemptuous aplication, by being run up to the 
27 



410 EMPHASIS OF THE RISING OCTAVE. 

keennes of the octave. Some readers might probably be disposed 
to set a more dignified form of intonation on these questions, by 
considering them as Apealing ; and employing a general curent of 
downward thirds, with a downward octave on dog, and cur. I 
only say, they will bear the asigned intonation, without making 
preference the subject of argument ; tho the manifest sneer seems 
to claim the rising intervals. The readings proposed in this esay 
are for ilustration ; and their purpose may be fulfiled, even if they 
may not exactly acord with comon opinion. There is a best in the 
works of every art ; but the latitude of admisible variation, within 
the reach of principles, makes an ample and a liberal grant, that 
sometimes generously admits even cases of unsucesful search after 
the highest excelence. Over such failures, the inteligent critic of 
another age will be neither quarelsome nor severe. 

The emphasis of the octave by a change of radical pitch, is 
exemplified in the folowing lines. 

'Zounds, show me what thou'lt do : 

Woo't weep ? woo't fight? woo't fast? woo't tear thyself ? 

The exasperated energy of Hamlet, in his encounter with 
Laertes, calls for the highest pitch of interogation on the w T ords 
here marked ; but these words do not admit of the slow concrete. 
To fulfil the purposes of expresion, they are to be imediately trans- 
fered by radical change to an octave above the word 1000% which 
in its several places, is at the comon level of the melody. The 
emphatic sylable, when raised, is still further indued with the 
character of an interogative interval, by the rapid flight of the 
concrete octave, described in the seventeenth section. In the first 
seven words of the second line the voice does skip, alternately 
ascending and descending, between the extremes of an octave. 

While these lines are before us, we may notice the contrast 
between the two movements of pitch in the octave ; for the word 
tear, having an indefinite quantity, admits freely of the slow con- 
crete ; and the voice after being restrained to the discrete skip, on 
the preceding imutable sylables, more freely, and with graceful 
contrast asumes on this w T ord, the intonation of a concrete or 
continuous rise. 



EMPHASIS OF THE RISING FIFTH. 411 



Of the Emphasis of the Rising Fifth. 

The relation of the concrete fifth to the octave, in their inter- 
ogative character, was formerly shown. As a sign of emphatic 
thot or of pasion, the fifth is less impresive than the octavej from 
not having its percing influence. There is however, more dignity 
in the importance it gives to a sylable. In the Mowing lines, 
from Satan's adres to the sun, the emphasis on thee may be made 
by the concrete rising fifth, for the expresion of its exultation. 

Evil be thou my good : by thee at least 
Divided empire with Heaven's king I hold. 

It is said here, and we alow the same cautious latitude in other 
cases, that a certain form of emphatic expresion may be employed ; 
for ocasionaly, the emphasis may be varied; as in the present 
example, thee might be in the wave of the fifth, or third, or even 
the second ; in the last case however, a want of the expresive efect 
of the fifth, must be suplied by a long quantity, and by the use 
of the radical, or median, or vanishing stres, on the wave of the 
second so employed. Nay, we will go further with the liberal 
construction alowed by every broad and self-confiding system; 
and under the principles of this Work, are ready to acord with 
the free-choice of any enlightened taste, which in the above 
example might prefer even the positive emphasis of a downward 
interval. And this, not inconsistently; for by the rules of a well 
ordered system, such variations will always be made acording to 
the discretion that liberaly allows them. 

In the folowing lines, the emphasis of the fifth on the word 
beauty, is perhaps not absolutely unchangeable; but it certainly 
produces a brightnes of picture, well adapted to the admirative 
character, and which cannot perhaps be so well efected in any 
other way. 

Tears like the rain-drops may fall without measure, 
But rapture and beauty they cannot recall. 

The effect in this case will be more finished, if after the concrete 



412 EMPHASIS OF THE RISING THIRD. 

rise of the sylable beau, thru the fifths ty be discretely brot down 
to the line of the curent melody. It may be aded, that from the 
transposed order of sylabic quantity, a reversed order of intonation 
may be set on rapture ; for a discrete rising skip of the fifth may 
be made with rap, and a concrete return to the curent melody on 
ture. 

The emphasis of the fifth, by a skip of radical pitch, is further 
exemplified in the line, formerly quoted to show the radical stress. 

Which, if not victory, is yet revenge. 

Here the abrupt stres on vie, requires and receves asistance from 
intonation, by seting that short sylable at a discrete fifth above the 
place of not : for this gives expresive emphasis ; and a downward 
return to the curent melody on to, closes the line with the efect, 
tho not with the full form, of a prepared cadence. 



Of the Emphasis of the Rising Third. 

The striking intonation of the octave and the fifth is suited to 
the earnest interests and replications of coloquial speech, and to 
the forcible thots and pasions of the drama. The rise of the third, 
in still denoting severaly, both interogation and emphasis, produces 
a less intense, but a more dignified impresion. 

The rise of the third may be set on the word he, in the folowing 

lines. 

Who first seduced them to that foul revolt? 
The infernal Serpent; he it was, whose guile, 
Stired up with envy and revenge. 

And we may add, that the words infernal serpent, being a positive 
answer to the question, should have the downward intonation, both 
for contrast to the rising third, on he>, and for emphatic wonder at 
the revengeful guile of the seducer. 

Some phrases however are simply interogative, and unacom- 



EMPHASIS OF THE EISING SEMITONE. 413 

panied by those states of mind usualy producing the octave and 
the fifth. The emphatic distinction in these cases, is made with 
the moderately atractive influence of the third. 

Dost thou think Alexander looked o' this /asAion, 
i' the earth? 

If in this example, Alexander, this fashion, and earth, be taken 
as emphatic, the distinction will be apropriately made by the third. 
Should the intonation on these words be in the wider interval of 
the fifth or octave, it would imply an eagernes of inquiry, and a 
light familiarity of adres, not embraced by the meaning of the 
question, nor consistent with the temper of Hamlet's moralizing 
reflections. 

It is scarcely necesary to ilustrate the radical skip of the third, 
in relation to emphasis. The word victory, in a preceding example, 
may be executed on this discrete interval, if the Reader should 
think the fifth, there employed, too wide ; for it will exemplify 
either case, acording to the degree of energy ascribed to it. 

The third, as shown in the sixteenth section, is employed on 
the emphatic words of conditional, concessive, and hypothetical 
phrases. 

The minor third, together with the rest of the minor scale, is 
the esential means of plaintivenes in song ; but it is not to be used 
in the system of speaking-intonation, set-forth in this Work ; and 
this system regarding it as a fault in speech, we cannot give it a 
place, in the history of emphasis. 



Of the Emphasis of the Rising Semitone. 

I omit here, a notice of the tone or second. The Reader must 
now be too well acquainted with the character of the diatonic 
melody, not to perceve, that the simple rise of a second, having 
no atractive or peculiar expresion, cannot, by pitch alone, be em- 
phatic. The more impresive intervals, when not compared among 



414 EMPHASIS OF THE EISING SEMITONE. 

themselves, are emphatic only by their contrast with the thotive 
curent of the second. It is true, a sylable is made emphatic by 
quantity ; and that quantity in plain and dignified uterance, is 
comonly efected by the doubling of the second into the form of a 
wave. But the impresivenes is here the result of time, not into- 
nation. 

As the semitone has a peculiar expresion, it can fulfil the con- 
dition of emphasis, when laid upon a single word in the course of 
a diatonic melody. We have an instance of this, in the first line 
of Hamlet's soliloquy. 

O, that this too, too solid flesh would melt, 
Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew ! 

These words are prompted by three diferent states of mind. O, 
that this solid flesh would melt, is wishful ; this too solid flesh, is 
declarative that it cannot change ; and the second too, here taking- 
on the degree of an adjective, is plaintive under the repeated 
declaration. In these states, Hamlet implores with becoming 
seriousnes, that his living frame may be dissolved ; yet by the first 
adverb too, repeated more forcibly as an adjective, expreses his 
conviction of its imposibility. Under the hard fate of this con- 
viction, he repeats the word too, with a pathetic despondency, 
which requires and beautifuly sad, receves a slowly extended and 
slightly tremulous wave of the semitone. 

It rarely hapens however, that this semitonic expresion is found 
so insulated : for the plaintivenes which directs a single word, 
generaly spreads its efect over the whole phrase or sentence ; con- 
stituting the chromatic melody, and thereby destroying the solitary 
importance, or proper emphasis of the semitone. 

It will then be asked j how emphasis when required, can be 
efected in a chromatic melody. It may be by stres in its various 
forms ; and by time ; for the semitone is set on sylables of every 
quantity. It may likewise be produced by intonation, in the 
folowing manner. 

When a sylable calls for the emphasis of a wider pitch in a 
chromatic melody, it cannot be a simple concrete rise or fall thru 
the second, third, fifth, or eighth ; for these movements, by over- 
sliding the measure of a semitone, would destroy the plaintivenes, 



EMPHASIS OF THE DOWNWARD CONCRETE. 415 

which by the conditions of the case should be heard. Yet, when 
a sylable of the chromatic melody is elevated by a discrete radical 
change, from the level of the curent, to a third, fifth, or octave 
above it; and when raised, is there utered however rapidly, in the 
interval of a semitone, the plaintive or chromatic character will be 
preserved ; and as the sylable, by a transfer of the radical pitch, is 
advanced to a higher point of the scale, its semitone by the addi- 
tional means of this acutenes in position is more forcibly impresed 
on the ear, and fuly conforms to the definition of emphasis. 



Of the Emphasis of the Downward Concrete. 

The downward movement of the voice expreses positivenes and 
surprise, and on a single long sylable, forms the feeble cadence. 
We are now to consider the maner of employing this concrete, for 
the purpose of emphasis, on one or more words, in a curent melody. 

The wider downward concrete is a very comon form of emphatic 
distinction, and exerts' a powerful atraction over the ear. It can- 
not hoAvever, be used in sentences of thoro interogative intonation ; 
nor is it, in its simple forms employed in the chromatic melody. 
When necesary in this later case, for denoting surprise or posi- 
tivenes, it may be introduced as a constituent of the unequal wave ; 
for the rise of a semitone as the first constituent, will preserve the 
plaintivenes; and a subsequent continuation downward on the 
eighth, or fifth, or third, will join to this plaintivenes, the required 
emphasis of the faling concrete. 

When we had ocasion in its proper place, to speak of the descent 
of the voice both by concrete and by radical pitch 3 that descent 
was represented, as taking place, only from the line of the curent 
melody. It is now necesary to describe the particular maner of its 
movement in emphasis. In the twenty-second section, a notation 
is given of the folowing line. 

Seems, madam, nay, it is ! I know not seems. 

In that notation, one of its emphatic sylables is marked with a 



416 EMPHASIS OF THE DOWNWARD CONCRETE. 

downward fifth ; the concrete apearing on the staff, with its radical 
the whole extent of that interval above the curent melody. I 
then merely pointed out the peculiarity; not wishing, in that view 
of the downward concrete, to anticipate the history of its aplica- 
tion to the especial subject of the present section. 

Should the word is, in the above line, be utered as a feeble 
cadence, by the descent of a third from the line of the curent 
melody, as if it were the close of a sentence, it would not have 
the impresive efect, required by the meaning. It cannot then, be 
a simple descent of the voice from the line of a curent melody, 
which gives an emphatic character to this downward movement. 

The full efect of the concrete, in this case, is produced by com- 
encing its radical, on a line of pitch above the curent melody, and 
descending to that line or below it, acording to the force of ex- 
presion. The hight at which the outset or radical of the descend- 
ing concrete is to be taken, depends on the degree of positivenes 
or surprise, designed in the emphasis. That the expresive efect 
of the downward concrete procedes from its afinity in form with 
the cadence, I will not asert. There seems however, to be some- 
thing like an ultimate afirmation implied in a very positive em- 
phasisj as if it meant, this afirmation is beyond doubt, then let the 
subject here be closed. 

It may perhaps be askedj why the downward vanish, emphat- 
icaly used in the curent melody, does not produce the efect of a 
cadence, and interupt the continuous thot or expresion of discourse. 
Let it be recolectedj the feeblest form of the cadence consists in 
the concrete descent by the third ; consequently the downward 
emphasis can at most, amount but to this feeble form. Again, the 
proper cadence is continued downward from the line of the curent 
melody; whereas the emphatic downward concrete, begins on a 
degree of the scale above the line of the melody, and does not 
always descend below it. 

And further : speech has two means for conveying the mental 
states of thot and pasion. One, by a conventional language, which 
to the ear, can describe them all. The other, by the various Modes 
and forms of the voice, that instinctively expres many of these 
mental states, when engrafted on words. A spoken cadence is 
denoted, both by the vocal sign, in its three descending radicals, 



EMPHASIS OF THE DOWNWARD OCTAVE. 417 

with the final faling concrete ; and by language describing the 
meaning of the words that terminate the sentence ; for the into- 
nation of the cadence, together with the meaning and structure of 
the phrase, and the pause, always marks the close. Consequently, 
an emphatic downward vanish in the course of the melody, can 
never be confounded with its termination. 

The downward emphasis by discrete radical pitch, has the same 
character as the downward concrete, and is employed for a skip on 
an imutable sylable. 

The cause of a downward emphasis taking its radical pitch, so 
far above the line of the curent melody, must be obvious on con- 
sidering, that by a descent merely from the line of that curent, 
the octave, the fifth, and perhaps the third would in some cases 
be inaudiblej and always too feeble for the demands of these 
impresive downward intervals. 



Of the Emphasis of the Downward Octave. 

After what has been said generaly of the downward emphasis, 
it is scarcely necesary to state, that the octave on a long sylable 
gives the strongest degree of this species of emphasis. The word 
hell, in the folowing lines, requires the octave. 

So frown'd the mighty combatants, that Hell 
Grew darker at their frown. 

This is taken from that fine picture of threatful hostility between 
Satan and Death, in the second book of Paradise Lost. And who- 
ever would give this part with a forcible and somewhat dramatic 
efect, will find it dificult to bring out the full meaning of the poet, 
except by the above directed intonation. The meaning, if we may 
interpret it, is not to represent simply, without marking its degree, 
an increase of darknes produced by the figurative gloom of the 
brows of the combatants. Such a picture would be too tame and 



418 EMPHASIS OF THE DOWNWARD OCTAVE. 

trite for this dreadful edge of batle. The thot becomes worthy 
of the ocasion, when the frowns are said to be able to blacken the 
deep darknes even of Hell. It is not to our purpose to remark 
here, that a strong downward emphasis on darker, completes the 
expresive meaning of the Poet. 

The above forcible intonation is produced by the concrete pitch 
of the downward octave : and as the downward concrete emphasis 
always comences at a higher pitch than that of the curent melody, 
so with the downward emphasis on imutable sylables, the change 
of radical pitch is likewise from an asumed point above the curent 
melody. This may be ilustrated by the folowing example from 
the second book of Milton. 

Far less abhor'd than these 
Vex'd Scylla, bathing in the sea that parts 
Calabria from the hoarse Trinacrian shore. 

Others may please themselves, with their own vocal expresion 
of this first line ; I can satisfy my ear, only by a concrete rising 
octave denoting an exagerated surprise, on far ; then a descent by 
the radical pitch of an octave, to less, for the emphatic expresion 
of the degree of abhorence, on that comparative word, by return- 
ing to the level of the radical of far, in the line of the curent 
melody. It is not the place, but I may remark, that ab is to be 
raised an octave by radical pitch ; and' hor'd returned by a down- 
ward concrete, of that same interval; thereby completing the 
forcible expresion, by a faling and a rising discrete skip, on less 
and ab, between a rising and a faling concrete, on far and hor'd. 

A similar intonation is apropriate to the line that folows in the 
text of the poem. 

Nor uglier folow the night-hag. 

Here, nor rises by a concrete octave ; ug descends discretely by 
that same interval ; li, from the expresion not being so strong as 
in the preceding case, may either rise by the discrete third, or fifth, 
and then descend by its concrete, on er to the level of nor, in the 
curent melody ; or Her, slured as it were into one sylable, may 
receve the direct wave of one of these intervals. 



EMPHASIS OF THE DOWNWARD FIFTH. 419 

In these examples, nothing is said of the stres, or aspiration, 
necesary for the full vocal display of their expresion. We here 
regard only the downward movement. 

If it may be askedj w T hy this emphasis of downward radical 
pitch has not the effect of a cadencial close ; it may be answered^ 
it has in a degree ; but it is still an imperfect one, and not suficient 
for a full termination of discourse. For the descent is from a point 
asumed above the curent line, and its downward reach is to about 
the level of that line ; whereas the true and final cadence is made 
by a descent of two radicals below the curent melody. Add to 
this, the cause asigned in a preceding page, why the emphasis of 
the downward concrete is not liable to be confounded with the 
cadence ; as like it, the downward discrete emphasis is readily dis- 
tinguishable from the cadence, by the words, and meaning, and 
pause, that denote the proper close. 



Of the Emphasis of the Downward Fifth. 

The similarity of this interval to the octave, the diference con- 
sisting in degree only, renders it unecesary to do more, than quote 
a phrase in which the less energetic emphasis of the downward 
fifth may be employed. The word well, in the folowing lines, 
from that brief and beautiful adress to the City of London, at 
the close of the third book of Cowper's Task, may receve the 
emphatic downward concrete of the fifth. 

Ten righteous would have saved a city once, 
And thou hast many righteous. Well for thee, 
That salt preserves thee ; more corupted else, 
And therefore more obnoxious at this hour, 
Than Sodom in her day had power to be, 
For whom G-od heard his Abraham plead in vain. 

The radical change of the downward fifth may be made on the 
word subject, in the folowing lines, from the first act of Julius 



420 EMPHASIS OF THE DOWNWAKD THIED. 

Ccesar. In the second scene, Cassius after exciting Brutus to a 
proud declaration of his love of honor, continuesj 

I know that virtue to be in you, Brutus, 
As well as I do know your outward favor. 
"Well, honor is the subject of my story. 

If this is alowed to be the emphatic word, the meaning here 
conveyed, that honor is positively, the very mater he desires to 
speak of, must be expresed by a downward intonation on the word 
subject But the acented sylable of this word is too short to bear 
the prolonged and slower concrete. The effect is therefore to be 
acomplished with a discrete descent, by assuming the first sylable 
sub, at a fifth above the current melody, and returning to the line 
of that melody, on ject, with the radical skip of a fifth.. Some 
other form of emphasis on this word may, in a maner, mark a 
kind of aposition in the terms, honor and subject ; yet to an ear of 
discriminative taste, perhaps none will give so striking a picture 
of the identity, as the intonation, here proposed. 



Of the Emphasis of the Downward Third, 

The downward Third expreses a more moderate degree of the 
state of mind, conveyed by the octave, and fifth. In the folowing 
reply of Hamlet, the word Queen does not seem to require a 
stronger emphatic distinction, than that of a faling third. 

Queen. Have you forgot me ? 

Ham. No, by the rood, not so : 

You are the Queen, your husband's brother's wife. 

Here we may again notice the striking diference above refered 
to, of the downward third, when employed as a cadence, and as 
emphasis. In the former case, if the word Queen should descend 
concretely, from the line of the curent melody to a third below 
it, the sentence might seem to be terminated at that point by the 



EMPHASIS OF THE DOWNWARD THIRD. 421 

feeble cadence. In the later, when this word skips to a third 
above the curent line, and then descends concretely to that line, in 
the maner of emphasis, it does not even with a subsequent pause, 
produce a close, but rather implies a continuation of the sentence. 
The emphasis of the downward radical change of the third, 
may be made by a transition from that to too, in the folowing 
phrase. 

Cassius. They shouted thrice ; what was the last cry for ? 
Casca. Why, for that too. 

Of these last words that is to be taken a third above the line of 
the curent melody ; and too, at the level of its line. 

It was said formerly j the prepared cadence is produced by the 
radical descent of a third below the curent melody, on a short 
sylable, or by a descending concrete third, on a long one, preceding 
the triad. Still this descent alone is not terminative. For after 
descending by this discrete third, the last sylable does not neces- 
arily end with the downward tone required at a close ; and it will 
be recolected, that even this downward discrete skip of a third was 
caled a false cadence, from its not having the satisfactory efect 
of a period ; and in the concrete preparation for the cadence, the 
descent of the third can be, at most, only a feeble cadence. Con- 
sider further j the structure and meaning of the phraseology have 
a share of influence, in denoting the end of a sentence. This 
downward radical skip of the prepared cadence, has in part the 
meaning of emphasis, by forcibly impresing on the ear the most 
complete termination of discourse.* 



The downward Second, whether concrete or discrete, being a 
.constituent of the diatonic melody, has no emphatic power. It 
gives variety to the curent, by ocasionaly taking the place of the 
rising interval ; and by its concrete on the last constituent of a 
faling tritone, makes the triad of the cadence. 



* Let not the Reader, on this hint, unecesarily multiply terms, and call 
this the Emphatic cadence, or the Cadencial emphasis. 



422 EMPHASIS OF THE WAVE. 

The downward Semitone has peculiarity, suficient for a strong 
emphatic distinction : but I am not aware of its being ever intro- 
duced alone, into the diatonic melody ; and in the chromatic, it 
serves only the purpose of variety, similar to that of the down- 
ward second in the diatonic curent. 



Of the Emphasis of the Wave. 

The junction of oposite concretes gives both by its quantity 
and interval emphatic distinction to sylables and words. 

If a history of the voice should be writen, from the practice of 
the mass of readers, and not from cultivated and rare examples of 
excelence, it would be necesary to add a Melody of the Wave to 
that of the diatonic and chromatic; as many, and some of the 
world's great readers and actors too, aply the intonation of wider 
waves, to every long and emphatic sylable. This, to say the least 
of it as a fault, gives the impresive efect of the wave to a whole 
sentence, and prevents its employment as the means of emphasis 
on a single word. 

The wave, acording to its form, expreses admiration, surprise, 
inquiry, mirthful wonder, sneer and scorn ; and is emphaticaly 
used on long quantities, embracing these states of mind. 

The dignified diatonic melody is made by the wave of the 
second ; and this is only a method of ading the gravity of its last 
constituent, the downward second, to the lighter efect of the pre- 
vious ascent of that interval ; and of producing at the same time 
the length of sylable, so esential to solemn uterance, without the 
risk of faling into the protracted note of song. But the wave of 
the second never performs the part of emphasis, by its intonation 
alone. Waves of wider intervals, to give time and dignity to 
uterance, double the concrete of which they are respectively com- 
posed, and have besides, a striking peculiarity when used for 
emphatic distinction, in the diatonic melody. 

Emphatic words of scorn in dignified discourse are denoted by 



EMPHASIS OF THE EQUAL WAVE. 423 

the vanishing stres, or by aspiration, joined with either the simple 
rise or fall of a wider concrete, or with the direct or inverted form 
of its single wave. For there is a degree of levity and familiarity 
in the double wave, unsuitable to dignity of style. 

In considering the emphasis of the wave, it is not my intention 
to ilustrate all its forms. If the Reader calls to mind our history 
of this expresive sign, he may be able to do it for himself: and 
the varieties of the wave are so numerous as to prevent an entire 
description of them. I shall name a few of their forms. 



Of the Emphasis of the Equal-single-direct Wave 
of the Octave. s 

The Equal-single-direct wave of the octave actively expreses 
admiration and surprise; and when hightened by aspiration, the 
vanishing stress, or gutural grating, has the aditional meaning of 
sneer and scorn. There is a diference in the efect of this sign on 
a low and on a higher pitch. In the latter case, it has more of 
the character of railery, or mirthful coment than of wonder, posi- 
tivenes, or admiration. 

It was saidj the wave of the octave, restricted to the lower 
range of pitch, might be used in grave discourse. Under this 
view, the first sylable of the folowing well-known line, from 
Hamlet, might receve the emphasis of this expresive intonation. 

Angels and ministers of grace defend us ! 

This sentence embraces astonishment, and the purpose of in- 
vocation. The positivenes of the later requires the downward 
movement; astonishment, which in this case, implies something 
of inquiry or doubt, asumes the upward. But the invocation 
apears to be the engrosing interest; and for their respective ex- 
presion, the sylable, An should have the intonation of the direct 
wave ; for this, by its rising interval gives the doubtful astonish- 



424 EMPHASIS OF THE EQUAL WAVE. 

ment, and by its subsequent fall, the final and more powerful 
impresion of the invocation. 

In the folowing notation of this exclamatory sentence, I have 
set the direct wave of the octave on the first sylable An, which by 
its indefinite quantity, beautifully receves it. On grace an em- 
phatic radical skip is made to a fifth above the curent melody, with 
a subsequent rapid concrete of the downward fifth ; for the time 
of this word will not bear the slow concrete of that interval. The 
other sylables have, in the diagram, the concrete, and the radical 
pitch of a tone ; and the Triad of the cadence, with a downward 
concrete to each constituent : yet for a full expresion of the state 
of mind they may take-on, and perhaps, do require a radical trans- 
fer to the uper line, with a rapid concrete of some wider faling 
intervals, as we described this form of intonation, in the seven- 
teenth section; thereby to contribute their positive, but fainter 
influence, to that of the two emphatic words ; the whole, with the 
exception of the rise on the first sylable, being expresive of the 
earnestnes of the invocation.* 

An gels and min — is — ters of grace de — fend us! 



B 



? 



T~1~ fZ3E±3 *~^ 



* I may here refer to the gesture, apropriate to this exclamatory wave. In 
suposing the Enacting of this exclamation, I see the arms each in horor tosed 
up alike 'on end,' with palm and finger broadly spread-out in protective 
repulsion. The practice of the Stage, after more than two hundred years' 
close study of the Part, does riot acord with this view of it. What intona- 
tion is given to An, by great popular Actors, I have never, on closely listen- 
ing, been able to trace: their belief, that such intonation cannot be taught, 
has kept them from hearing enuf, to tell us. This sylable together with the 
whole line is, on the apearance of the Ghost, so sudenly shot-out, that the 
report is in-and-out of hearing in a moment. Astonishment and Invocation, 
on instinctive vocal interjections, are generaly if not always, made on long 
quantity: and we see how admirably the word angels is used by the Poet, to 
give ' smoothnes to the torent' of exclamation on its emphatic sylable. But 
the Actor's violence and hury seem to be directed by anger and impatience, 
enforced in the vehement trick of striking off his bonet. If the bonet is to 
drop by the agitation of horor, let the true personating of horor throw it off, 



EMPHASIS OF THE EQUAL WAVE. 425 

When the single-equal wave of the octave is inverted, the em- 
phasis has the character of interogation, from the ascent of the 
last constituent. 



Of the Emphasis of the Equal-single-direct Wave of the Fifth. 

This form of the wave caries a less degree of afirmation, and 
surprise, than that of the octave ; as in the folowing example, 
from the contest between Satan and Death. 

And breath 'st defiance here and scorn, 
Where I reign king? and to enrage the more, 
Thy king and lord ! 

Whoever will read, with its proper dramatic efect, the whole 
scene in Milton's second book, from which these lines are taken, 
will findj the wave now under consideration may be set on the 
sylable thy y as a full expresion of the positivenes, vaunting 
authority, and self-admiration, on the part of Death. 

To show the diference in character, between this direct wave 
and its inverted form, let the later be substituted in the above 
reading. The interogation produced by the ascent of its last 
constituent, will not only obscure the expresion of the poet, but 
absolutely cross out his meaning ; for it will seem to make Death 
insinuate a question, when he intends to be unanswerably afirm- 
ative. 

not a dextrous manuver, when the hands should be fixed, or only trembling 
aghast. I would not here wish to insinuate, that the bonet is cast off, to turn 
aside or confuse a scrutiny of the faults of intonation and gesture;, for with 
that ' genius ' and acomplishment, which the Great Actor is suposed to -admire 
and afect j the admision of eror, is imediately folowed by an atempt to corect it ; 
but certainly, nine-tenths if not more, of what ought at that moment to be a 
listening Audience, are by forcible distraction, made to be only Spectators of 
a Cap-trap on the floor. 

After the date of our fourth edition, I saw an Actor h excel en t in many 
points, quite carefuly hand his cap to an atendant. Qh, worse still!. "We 
have now, time and quiet to muse upon the transfer :: But,. 'Zounds !: how had 
he leisure,' to think upon it calmly then. 
28 



426 EMPHASIS OF THE UNEQUAL WAVE. 

We need not give an example of the wave of the Third in its 
equal-single form. If we supose a reduced degree of its expresionj 
all that was said of the character of the wave of the fifth, both 
direct and inverted, may be ascribed to the wave of this interval. 
It is more comonly employed than the fifth. 



Of the Emphasis of the Unequal-single Wave, 

It was said formerly^ the unequal wave is used for the ex- 
presion of admiration and surprise, or of inquiry, acording to its 
direct or its inverted course. With a wide variation of the relative 
extent of its constituents, and its union with aspiration, or vanish- 
ing stress, or gutural vibration, it becomes a forcible sign of scorn. 
The last word of the folowing contemptuous retort of Coriolanus, 
on the Volcian General who had caled him a ( boy of tears/ might 
perhaps be given as an instance of the ascent of a fifth, and the 
subsequent continuous descent of an octave. 

False hound ! 
If you have writ your anals true, 'tis there 
That, like an eagle in a dove-cote, I 
Flutered your Voices in Corioli ; 
Alone I did it. Boy. 

It is not here the place, to notice the strong aspiration necesary 
to expres the scornful state of the speaker. I have heard this syl- 
able pronounced on the Stage, with the simple downward emphasis. 
There is more cool wonder and self-satisfaction in this intonation, 
than belongs to the vexed pride of the Roman, and to his vehe- 
ment retort of a charge of inconstancy, which he must have half- 
acknowledged to himself. 

In the folowing lines, from the contention between Brutus and 
Cassius, the word yea may bear a direct-unequal wave, consisting 
of the rise of a tone or third continued into the fall of a third or 
fifth. 



EMPHASIS OF THE UNEQUAL WAVE. 427 

For, from this day forth, 
I'll use you for my mirth, yea, for my laughter, 
When you are waspish. 

If this word be given without aspiration, vanishing stres, or 
gutural vibration, the expresion will perhaps scarcely difer from 
that of the equal wave. The sneer must therefore depend on a 
union of some one or more of these several vocal signs, with the 
simple uterance. 

The intonation of complaint, on the word wrong, at its second 
place, in the folowing line, may be taken as an example of the 
emphasis of an unequal wave, with its first constituent, a semitone, 
and its second, a downward third or fifth, acording to the force 
required by the plaintive appeal. 

You wrong me every way, you wrong me, Brutus. 

I do not give an ilustration of the double wave of wider inter- 
vals. Serious and elevated discourse can have all its purposes of 
thot and pasion fulfiled without it ; and it is not the design of this 
esay, to point out to children and drolls, the scientific mode of 
derisively imitating the surprise of their neighbors, by the curling 
mockery of this vulgar intonation. How far the double wave of 
the second may be employed, for temporal emphasis, I leave others 
to determine. 



There is little to be said, on what, in the forty-first section, we 
call the Time of the concrete, as a means of emphasis. Its varia- 
tions are realy perceptible by strict atention; but they are so 
closely united with the forms of stres, that a separate consideration 
of them is unnecesary. 



428 EMPHASIS OF THE TREMOR. 



Of the Emphasis of the Tremor. 

The tremor may be aplied to a limited succesion of sylables, and 
in a maner, constitute small portions of a tremulous melody. We 
have here to consider its ocasional aplication to one or two words, 
in the curent of speech. 

The tremor on a single tonic, or subtonic element, in any inter- 
val except the semitone, is the sign of laughter ; and consequently 
joins to the emphatic meaning of words, the expresion of joy and 
admiration. 

Thou art the ruins of the noblest man, 
That ever lived in the tide of times. 

There is a degree of dignified exultation, and a superlative 
compliment in this eulogy, that cannot be properly expresed by 
the simple movement of the concrete. The first sylable of the 
emphatic word noblest, utered with the tremulous intonation of the 
wave of the third or second, on the subtonic n, as well as the tonic 
o, gives a vocal consumation to the earnestnes of the admirative 
state of the speaker. 

The tremor of the semitone or its waves, on a single tonic ele- 
ment, constitutes the function of crying. In the chromatic melody, 
it gives a marked distinction to emphatic words of tendernes, grief, 
suplication, and other related states of mind. 

The folowing lines from a dramatic part of Paradise Lost, in 
the tenth bookj if read with the personal action of the dialogue, 
call for the highest coloring of the semitone, and of the tremulous 
movement. 

Forsake me not thus, Adam ; witnes, Heaven, 

"What love sincere and reverence in my heart 

I bear thee, and unweeting have ofended, 

Cnhapily deceved; Thy supliant, 

I beg, and clasp thy knees ; bereve me not, 

Whereon I live, thy gentle looks, thy aid, 

Thy counsel, in this utermost distres, 

My only strength and stay. Forlorn of thee, 

Whither shall I betake me, where subsist? 

While yet we live, scarce one short hour perhaps, 



EMPHASIS OF THE TREMOR. 429 

Between us two let there be peace: both joining, 
As join'd in injuries, one enmity 
Against a foe by doom expres asign'd us, 
That cruel serpent. On me exercise not 
Thy hatred for this misery befalen ; 
On me already lost, me than thyself 
More miserable ; Both have sin'd ; but thou 
Against God only ; I against God and thee ; 
And to the place of judgment will return, 
There with my cries importune Heaven ; that all 
The sentence, from thy head remov'd, may light 
On me, sole cause to thee of all this wo, 
Me, me only, just object of his ire. 

By the lines that folow in the Poem, Eve is said to have i ended 
weeping/ and her suplication, to have been acompanied 'with 
tears that ceased not flowing. ? Speech atended with tears always 
employs more or less tremor. Should the semitonic tremor how- 
ever, be aplied on the whole of these lines, the efect would be 
monotonous, and the characteristic concrete of speech be lost in 
the agitated voice of crying. The mingled expresion of these two 
forms of intonation may be apropriately shown, by using the 
tremor, only on selected emphatic words. It may be well however 
to remark, that the above lines are not entirely subservient to the 
maner of uterance here required ; for some of the sylables em- 
bracing the deepest contrition, have not suficient quantity to alow the 
eminent intonation of the tremor. The word beg, and the acented 
sylable of utermost are of this character ; and tho they admit of 
the tremulous function to a slight degree, still their limited time 
does not fuly satisfy the demand, for a free extension of the voice. 
The words bereave, only, forlorn, thee and more, by their indefinite 
quantity, give ample measure to intonation. On these and others 
that might here be pointed-out, the tremor may be efectively set ; 
the rest of the melody having the smooth concrete of the semitone. 



430 RECAPITULATING YIEW OF EMPHASIS. 



A Recapitulating View of Emphasis. 

On a close consideration of the foregoing subject, it will be difi- 
cult to draw a definite line of separation between emphatic words 
and the rest of a curent melody ; inasmuch as some of the fainter 
cases of emphasis may scarcely difer from the simply acentual and 
temporal distinction of sylables. 

To what case then is the term emphasis to be aplied ? Not to 
that of one sylable, which difers in any measure of time, or degree 
of stres from another. For by this rule, we may consider half the 
words of language emphatic ; as they are perpetualy inter-varying 
by slight diferences in force, and quantity. Still however, certain 
impresive forms of uterance always atract the atention of an audi- 
tory. Marked degrees of stres with abruptnes, extreme length in 
quantity, wide and impresive intervals of pitch, and a peculiar 
vocaliry, when set on certain words, are variously the constituents 
of emphasis. But under what mental state, these atractive signs, 
first become emphasisj and at what point, in the respective grada- 
tions of stres and time, the emphatic character excedes the comon 
quantity and acent of the melody, cannot be asigned, and perhaps 
need not be known. 

Emphasis has, in the preceding parts of this section, been re- 
garded as thotive, interthotive, and pasionative, under the agency 
of the five mpdes of the voice. 

Emphasis may likewise be considered in reference to other 
Purposes. These are : First ; to raise one or more words above 
the vocal level of the rest of the sentence, without regard to their 
special expresion, or antithesis. Second ; to contrast certain words 
with each other, or to contradistinguish them. Third ; to suply 
an elipsis, and thereby complete to the ear the gramatical con- 
struction. Fourth; to mark the syntax, on ocasions when it 
might be doubtful without the asistance of emphasis. 

Another view of this subject might be taken, under the divisions 
of the Parts of Speech. When emphasis is laid on the article, it 
contradistinguishes a subject as definite or indefinite, singular or 
plural. On a noun, it may either point out the relation of exist- 



RECAPITULATING VIEW OF EMPHASIS. 431 

ence, or of genus, species, and individual ; or it may raise one 
substantive-thot above the rest of the sentence, without the ime- 
diate view of any special antithesis. On an adjective, the rela- 
tions of atribute and degree. On pronouns, its distinctions are 
relative to gender, number, case, and person ; or it may indicate, 
as on the article, the definite character of a subject. On the verb, 
it may show the relationship of states of being, acting, and suf- 
ering, of time, and number ; or distinguish without palpable an- 
tithesis. On the adverb, the distinction of time, place, negation, 
afirmation, and inference. On the preposition, the antithesis of 
motion, position, and cause. On conjunctions, the contrast of 
conjunctive and disjunctive relations, and of condition. On the 
interjection, emphasis serves only for pasionative expresion, with- 
out embracing an antithesis. 

On the whole, whatever is the meaning of any part of speech, 
emphasis may not only raise it into importance, and distinguish 
it from some other meaning, but may likewise suply an elipsis, 
and point out the syntax. 

It has been saidj every case of emphasis includes contrast. This 
does not seem to be true of emphatic interjections ; at least the 
antithesis is not obvious. And with regard to the cases included 
under the detail of other Parts of speech, the contrast in many 
instances is not at the moment, a subject of atention, even should 
an antithesis be embraced within the thot. Nor does it apear to 
be true of the Elipsis, and of the Punctuative, and the Emphatic tie. 

It is not within the range of my design, to ilustrate all the 
cases of emphasis, set-forth in the above survey of the parts of 
speech. I here exemplify the four general heads, of its Purposes. 

First. The distinction of one word above others, without the 
striking perception of antithesis, is here shown. 

But see! the angry victor hath recal'd 
His ministers of vengeance and pursuit, 
Back to the gates of Heaven. 

The first phrase contains an interjective emphasis ; yet I cannot 
conceve with what see is in contrast. Surely Satan, in drawing 
the atention of the eyes of Beelzebub, did not mean to signify^ 
he should not otherwise perceve the recal of the pursuit : and to 



432 RECAPITULATING VIEW OF EMPHASIS. 

supose see to be in antithesis to his not having looked before, or 
to his having a contrasted interest with some previous purpose, is 
a mere refinement. The case is the same with most interjections, 
whether they are properly the simple tonic elements, or with 
greater latitude, any of the several parts of speech. 

Second. The marked antithesis is exemplified in the folowing 
lines : 

I yielded ; and from that time see 

How beauty is excel'd by manly grace, 

And wisdom which alone is truly fair. 

This is the most frequent form of emphasis. 

Third. The use of strong emphasis, in an eliptical sentence, is 
remarkable in the folowing example, from the first book of Milton. 

Into what pit thou seest ! 
From what hight fall'n ! so much the stronger prov'd 
He with his thunder. 

Taking these lines as a complete construction, they are un- 
gramatical, and uninteligible. To one acquainted with the con- 
text, it is scarcely necesary to remark that the Poet meant to sayj 
See to what a dreadful pit we are doomed, consider from what an 
imeasurable hight we have been hurled, and learn thereby the 
degree of his superior power. Or again; as far as the horors 
and the depth of this pit are removed from the bliss and hight 
of heaven, so far has the thunder of the Almighty surpased the 
strength of our colected arms. This full meaning can be clearly 
brought-out from the eliptical phraseology of the Poet, only by 
skilful emphatic intonation. If the word what, in its two places, 
limited as it is in quantity, be given with an emphasis of the rapid 
downward-octave, forcibly aspirated, and with a loud concrete; 
and if the suceding words within the notes of admiration, be 
also intonated with downward intervals, but of diminished extent, 
it will vocaly denote an astonishment at the precipitation and at 
the doom, not fuly conveyed by the words alone. And further, 
if a cadence and a pause be made at faWn, and if so much be 
strongly emphatic, in any form that seems preferablej the com- 
parison of the degree of strength in the thunder, to the measure 



RECAPITULATING VIEW OF EMPHASIS. 433 

of the hight, will be obvious ; and the whole thot and expresion 
will come upon the ear, with that laconic eloquence, in which the 
admirers of the Poet will be ready to beleve, they were united 
and condensed, in the excursive and selecting circuit of his per- 
ception. 

Fourth. When the structure of a sentence is so much involved, 
as to produce a momentary hesitation in an audience, about its con- 
cord or government, the syntax may be rendered perspicuous by 
means of emphasis, as in this example : 

He stood, and call'd 
His legions, Angel forms, who lay entranc'd 
Thick as Autumnal leaves that strow the brooks 
In Vallombrosa, where the Etrurian shades, 
High over-arch'd, imbower ; or scater'd sedge 
Afloat, when with fierce winds Orion arm'd 
Hath vexed the Red-sea coast. 

If this passage were readj Thick as autumnal leaves in Val- 
lombrosa, or scoter' d sedge afloat* the gramatical construction would 
be clear. But the chain of parenthetic specifications between leaves 
and or, together with the picturesk alusion, and the beauty of its 
phraseology, makes us for a moment lose sight of that intended 
transition to another subject of ilustration, which should be im- 
ediate and perspicuous : the substitutive purpose of the conjunc- 
tion or, not being at once aparent, the phrase scater'd sedge, might 
at the instant, be prospectively taken as a nominative in some 
new course of the description. Should then, the phrase thick as 
autumnal leaves, be emphatically raised into memorable notice; 
and the suceding words, extending to the semicolon, be huried yet 
becomingly, and with a somewhat monotonous course of melodyj 
a subsequent emphasis on scoter 'd sedge afloat, will at once refer 
the ear back to the last similar emphatic distinction of the voice, 
on autumnal leaves, and indicate, that the Angel forms lay likewise 
as thick as the scatered sedge afloat. 

This maner of denoting the syntax and the meaning was caled, 
in the section on Grouping, the Emphatic tie ; and certainly in the 
present case, it has no other object than to join these disevered 
thots ; for a more direct and perspicuous arangement would not 



434 RECAPITULATING VIEW OF EMPHASIS. 

require the emphatic distinction. And the same is true of the 
like emphatic use of the Punctuative reference. 



Having enumerated the various modes of time, vocality, force, 
abruptnes, and intonation, by which certain words or sylables are 
strongly urged upon the ear, the Eeader is prepared to receve the 
term emphasis, with a wider definition than is usually given of it. 

Emphasis is a generic term for the extraordinary impressivenes 
of the thotive, interthdtive, and pasionative meaning of words; 
these three species of impresion being respectively produced by 
the varied uses of the several Modes of the voice. 

From this view it apears, that Emphasis, and what we have 
caled thotive and expressive speech, may be considered in most 
cases, as convertible generic terms : for emphatic words difer from 
such as are unemphatic, only in the use of those vocal signs which 
denote the mental states of thot and pasion. 

The preceding analysis will enable us to display the whole com- 
pas of the art of reading, with some amplitude of plan and acuracy 
of delineation. Words may be considered as representing simple 
thot ; an enforcing of it ; and as expresive of pasion. The prog- 
res of the voice in speaking is caled melody. The course of melody 
under the direction of simple thot, is by the interval of a tone in 
the radical sucesion, with a concrete rise of a tone from each of 
the radicals. But the portions of discourse representing simple 
thot are limited ; thots are to be enforced, and pasions to be ex- 
presed. The drift of the simple diatonic melody is therefore often 
interupted, by an ocurence of longer quantity and of wider inter- 
vals of the scale, both in the concrete and discrete forms. It was 
shown, at the close of the sixteenth section, that besides the seven 
forms of radical pitch, caled the phrases of melody, other radical 
sucesions of wider intervals were by the requisitions of speech, in- 
troduced into the Curent ; and on the same principle which directed 
the construction of those phrases, we have the phrases of the third, 
fifth, and octave, both in the rising, and the falling succession. 
Having learned how these wider phrases are employed, in the im- 



RECAPITULATING VIEW OF EMPHASIS. 435 

portant purpose of emphasis, we may distinguish them by an apro- 
priate term. And as we called those formed on the radical suces- 
ions of the secondj the phrases of melody or the Diatonic Phrases, 
let us call those formed on the radical transitions of wider intervalsj 
the Expresive Phrases, or Phrases of Emphasis. 

If the foregoing history has been suficiently clear, the Reader 
may now be able to take a discriminative survey of that prearanged 
system of plain melody, and contrasted expresion, which has been 
so long bearing its part in the course of human thot and pasion, 
without an ear to measure j and a tongue to name its well adjusted 
waysj or a voice, with a use of the perceptive means, to fulfil its 
purposes : and if his mind is large and liberal enuf to let in 
other thots than those of profit and fame, he may herein posses 
and contemplate at least the picture of a wise and beautiful ordi- 
nation of Nature, if he cannot, ambitiously offer it either for gain 
or aplause. 

The exercise of an atentive ear, together with a resolute prac- 
tice, will be necesary for the precise recognition and skilful em- 
ployment of the various forms of vocal expresion. But as all the 
constituents of speech are on ocasions, at the comand of every 
tongue, however eroneously they may be apliedj a full perception 
of the principles that should govern an educated and elegant use 
of these constituents mayj even without the power properly to 
execute themj enable us to overlook the exercises of others, with 
the decisive comendation or censure of an inteligent criticism; 
and as in Painting, knowledge alone, without an aplication of the 
rules that direct an Artist, may authorize a conclusion on the 
merit of his workj so, in the art of Reading, founded upon science, 
the silent aplication of its precepts may, without our being practical 
Elocutionists, equaly authorize us to cary the steady arm of knowl- 
edge against the self-conflicting councils, and changeful orders of 
individual, or conventional caprice ; to hold-out against eror with 
the strong defenses of a learned and cultivated taste ; and to join 
the delightful but pasing perceptions of the ear, with the continued 
and busy pleasures of mental discrimination. 

When the Reader reviews the preceding history, he is requested 
to consider j its purpose has been to record the phenomena of speech, 
without a limitation of that purpose, to points readily conizable in 



436 RECAPITULATING VIEW OF EMPHASIS. 

ordinary uterance, or practically important in oratorical instruction. 
As these phenomena were heard, so in strictest acordance, were 
they set-down; for there is in this Work, no Contribution to 
knowledge, which has not been drawn from Nature, by patient 
observation and experiment, conducted within the limits of that 
little space, between the Tongue and the Ear. Many parts of the 
detail will at once be recognized by the competent Header ; others 
will be afterwards receved into the growing familiarity of his in- 
quiry ; whereas some of the descriptions even if admited, will still 
be considered as refinements, beyond the reach of perception and 
of rule. As a physiologist, I have done no more than my duty, 
in this abundant record, however aparently useles some of its 
niinutise may be. Much of the acumulated wealth of science is 
not at interest ; but the borrowers may one day come. It is readily 
granted, that some distinctions in this history may be at present 
practicaly disregarded. The several forms of stres are described 
as palpably difering functions^ and they are so in speech ; yet I 
have not ventured to insist on the importance of the diference in 
all cases. So in describing the intervals of the scale, it was not 
designed to exclude the fourth, sixth and seventh, or intervals even 
beyond the octave, from the speaking voice. Nor is it to be sup- 
osed that some of the intervals of intonation may not on ocasions, 
be used as substitutes for each other, without afecting the force 
or precision of speech. I was also, far from ascribing particular 
expresions to all the posible forms of the wave. 

In here opening the way for the change of Elocution, from an 
imitative Manerism, with its inherent defects, to a directive Science, 
or rather, an Art Founded on Nature, with all its constituent use- 
fulnes and beauty, it was necesary to set-forth every function of 
the voice ; that the materials might be thereby furnished towards 
the future establishment of a system of instruction, for those who 
have the rare aim in scholarshipj of seeking its higher acomplish- 
ments, in the abundant encompasing of principles, and the con- 
densing economy of systematic means. That the investigation of 
this subject has produced much that will be imperceptible to the 
first scrutinies of the general ear, must be infored from the past 
history of human improvement. The mysterious subject of the 
Speaking Voice has been at all times so despairingly considered 



DRIFT OF THE VOICE. 437 

beyond the reach of analytic perception, that the suposed imposi- 
bility alone, will perhaps raise a stronger oposition to the claims of 
this Demonstrative Esay, than all the Author might despondingly 
have anticipated against his prospects, in undertaking this ' forlorn 
hope ' of scientific inquiry. Many who in fine organization of ear, 
a capability of delicate analysis, and a power of comprehensive 
survey, poses the means for succesful investigation, will too prob- 
ably, shrink from the labor of experiment, and seek to justify 
infirmity of resolution, by defensively asuming the hopelesnes of 
trial. 



SECTION XLVII. 

Of the Drift of the Voice. 

He who has the rare gratification to hear a good reader, may 
perceve, that while his voice is adapted to the thot or expresion of 
individual wordsj there is a character in its continuous movement, 
thru parts or the whole of his discourse; identical during the 
prevalence of that movement, and changing with its variations. 
Every one recognizes this diference in maner, between a facetious 
description j and a solemn invocation from the pulpit; between 
the vehement stres of angerj and the well known whining of com- 
plaint. It is to this continuation of any one kind of vocal curent 
or style, whatever may be its thot, or pasion, that I aply the term 
Drift of the voice : and which I briefly noticed in the sixth and 
eighth sections. 

This subject is not unecesarily specified by a name, nor uselesly 
ofered to the studious atention of the Reader ; for if a particular 
drift is required on a portion or on the whole of discourse^ any 
marked change of its asumed and apropriate character, will do 
equal violence to expresion, and taste. The introduction of a tone 
or second, into the plaintive drift of the chromatic melody, would 
no less ofend against propriety of speech, than the erors of time in 
music, would shock the sensibility of an acurate ear. 

The importance of the subject of drift being admited ; let us 



438 DRIFT OF THE VOICE. 

consider j Upon what it is founded ; and how many diferent styles 
it employs. 

Drift is founded on the various forms of the four modes of 
vocality, time, force, and intonation. These forms have been 
described individualy, as representing thot and pasion, for the 
ocasional purpose of emphasis. We here consider the maner of 
aplying them, and their peculiar efect, when employed on a part 
or the whole of the curent melody. 

The question^ How many diferent characters drift may asume, 
is to be answered by ascertaining, which of the uses of vocality, 
force, time, and pitch, will bear a continuation ; some not alowing 
extended repetition without producing a disagreeable monotony. 
In general, most of the forms of time, stres, and intonation, may 
as ocasion requires, be severaly a curent melody, without violating 
propriety or taste ; others can be employed only on a phrase or 
a solitary sylable, and therefore should not be made a drift in 
discourse. 

Altho the character of a drift may pervade the whole sentence, 
yet the peculiar form of voice which produces it, is in some cases 
aplied only to certain sylables. Unacented sylables cannot bear 
the prolonged time, required for the drift of dignity; still the 
dignity is spread over the whole sentence, by its long quantities 
alone. We here enumerate the various styles of drift. 

The Drift of the Second, or the Diatonic Drift The diatonic, or 
as we otherwise call it the Thotive melody, is used for simple 
narative and description; and having no remarkable expresion, 
should be, under Nature's ordination, one of the most comon 
forms of drift. The employment of expresive intervals, when 
not required, in the plain diatonic curent, violates a leading law of 
fitnes or decorum in speech. Let a gazete advertisement be read 
with the solemn drift of a long quantity, or in the plaintive style 
of the semitonej and all, at least of our New school of Criticism, 
will acknowledge the improper aplication of time and intonation. 

In the usual course of the diatonic melody, perhaps the upward 
concretes predominate ; the downward vanish of the second, being 
ocasionaly introduced for variety ; yet when required by the gravity 
of the subject, the use of this downward second may without 
monotony, constitute a drift. 



DRIFT OF THE VOICE. 439 

The Drift of the Semitone. Enough has been said on the sub- 
ject of the chromatic melody; it exemplifies the present head. 
This form is used in discourse of a plaintive, tender, and supli- 
cating character. It was shown in its proper place, that every 
interval is practicable on every kind of quantity ; the semitone 
therefore, in its drift, is heard on every sylable, however short ; 
and even when unacented. 

The Drift of the Downward Vanish. It was saidj the faling 
second is sometimes used as a drift. The downward third and even 
the fifth is ocasionaly heard in continuation. Their curents expres 
positivenes ; and an earnestnes of conviction^ with resentment, when 
enforced by stress. The folowing indignant argument from the 
pleading of Volumnia, in Coriolanus, bears the slow concrete of 
the downward fifth on all its emphatic, with a rapid concrete of 
the same interval, on its other sylables. 

Come let us go : 
This felow had a Volcian to his mother ; 
His wife is in Corioli, and this child 
Like him by chance. 

A continued use of the downward intervals, is as we have 
learned, a form of drift in exclamatory sentences. 

The Drift of the Wave of the Second. This is used in contin- 
uation on long quantities, for ocasions of solemn, deliberate, and 
dignified speech. I do not sayj this wave may not be aplied to 
sylables of moderately extended timej and even rapidly executed 
on those we caled mutable ; but it is on long-drawn or indefinite 
quantities that its efect as a drift, becomes remarkable. "With 
an ocasional use of a wider wave, longer quantity, and the median 
stres, it constitutes the Reverentive or Admirative Drift. 

The Drift of the Wave of the Semitone. This is the most comon 
form of a pathetic drift: for the states of mind directing the 
chromatic melody, generaly call for slow time and continued 
quantity. Under this, and the preceding head, both the direct 
and inverted form of these waves are used interchangeably, in 
their respective melodies. The rise and fall of the simple second, 
having no peculiar character, the variation if any, in the efect of 
the terminating-interval of its direct and of its inverted wave, 



440 DRIFT OF THE VOICE. 

may be disregarded. Whereas, the strong expresion of the wider 
simple intervals produces a striking diference in the respective 
closing concrete of their direct, and of their inverted waves. 

The Drift of Quantity. Atractive characters of speech are 
formed on Time. In discourse expresive of gayety, mirth, anger, 
and other similar states, the uterance is quick ; and this is gen- 
eraly combined with the simple concrete of the second, together 
with a radical or vanishing stres. The drift of long quantity on 
the wave, is employed in all solemn, plaintive, and dignified 
speech. 

We might make a threefold division of the temporal Drift, into 
that of quick, slow, and median time. 

The Drift of Force. Loudnes and Softnes, or with preferable 
co-relative terms, the Forte and the Piano, respectively heard in 
continuation, do impres the ear with their peculiarities ; and the 
failure to fulfil the purpose of expresion on either of these points, 
must be included among the faults of speech. Who will denyj 
that on some ocasions the drift of comparative piano would be 
ridiculous ; and others again, when that of forte would be disgust- 
ing bombast. 

The Drift of the Loud Concrete. This is only reading or speak- 
ing with more than usual force ; it may therefore constitute a drift, 
and may be refered to the preceding head. 

The Drift of the Median Stress. This is necesarily conected 
with long quantity ; and generaly with that of the wave of the 
second and the semitone ; for their prolonged time is always the 
sign of that dignity, which for the most graceful display, requires 
the median swell. 

These nine forms of drift do, by their continuation, impres a 
peculiar character on extended portions of discourse. 

Of the other expresive modes of the voice, none are alowable in 
that continuation which, acording to our previous acount of drift, 
would properly constitute it. Yet as the aplication of some of 
them extends beyond the limit of emphasis, they deserve a place 
next in order to the full or Thoro drifts. If the Header is disposed 
to give them a name, they might be caled Partial : and we havej 

The Partial Drift of the Tremor. The tremulous movement 
is proper only on short and ocasional pasages, of what might be 



DRIFT OF THE VOICE. 441 

called sylabic crying. But the tremulous expresion, both in the 
plaintivenes of the semitone, and in the gayety and exultation of 
the second and of wider intervals, is too remarkable to be long 
continued in the curent of discourse. For tho drift is a kind of 
monotony, it is only disagreeable when unduly continued or 
improperly aplied. 

The Partial Drift of Aspiration. States of mind requiring 
aspiration are like those of the preceding head, generaly limited 
to temporary portions of melody. When so aplied, the character 
of uterance justly entitles it to the name of partial drift. 

The Partial Drift of the Gutural Vibration. The use of this 
scornful form of expresion is sometimes continued for more than 
the time, and the solitary ocasions of emphasis : and thus produces 
a limited drift. 

The Partial Drift of Interogation. The rising third, fifth, and 
octave are the interogative intervals. Their use in partial intero- 
gation, excedes so slightly the extent of their employment for em- 
phasis, as scarcely to deserve the name of drift. In declarative, 
and other questions requiring the thoro intonation, the predomi- 
nance of these impresive intervals, gives that peculiar character 
which the comon ear at once perceves and comprehends. Still, as 
questions are but portions of discourse, and as these wider inter- 
vals are never used in continuation for any other purpose, this 
form of drift must be considered as partial. 

The Partial Drift of the Phrases of Melody. The Monotone 
and the Alternate phrase are sometimes, severaly used in continu- 
ation, to an extent that might constitute a partial drift. In the 
twenty-ninth section, a peculiar character is respectively ascribed 
to these two phrases, when continuously employed. 

It may be a questionj How far vocality on a part or the whole 
of discourse, might constitute a drift. The fulnes of the orotund 
may give a character of dignity, at once distinguishable from the 
meager huskines and forceles eiforts of uncultivated speech. 

These are the several drifts, respectively continued thruout dis- 
course ; or restricted to the partial limits of a sentence or a clause. 

Some of the constituents of vocal expresion will not bear repe- 
tition ; and are therefore not admisible among the drifts. 

It was saidj interogative sentences of the Thoro kind might be 
29 



442 PRIFT OF THE VOICE. 

regarded as carrying a partial drift of the third, fifth, or octave. 
With the exception of this case, these wider rising intervals are 
never corectly used in continuation. The minor third, used plain- 
tively in crying and song, is in no way alowable as a driftj Nature, 
for some wise purpose, having excluded this sign from what she 
intended to be agreeable and efective speech. Its peculiarity will 
be shown when we treat of the faults of speakers. 

A current of these wider simple intervals being forbiden in 
melody, their combination into the wider waves cannot be ex- 
tended beyond the limited place of emphasis. There is however, 
a drift of this kind observable as a fault in readers ; nay, some, in 
their ambitious eforts can comand no other form of intonation. 
But the least cultivation of ear rejects the undue repetition of these 
florid constituents of speech. 

Of the streses, none except the Median and the Loud concrete 
are employed as a drift. The Radical would perhaps, be made a 
curent style in a language of only emphatic and imutable sylables ; 
and some bad speakers, particularly Pleaders at the Bar, who think 
thereby to hammer-in their argumentj do use this stres, as if their 
own had been so constructed ; it is however too forcible to bear 
continued repetition, without ofending the ear and distracting the 
mind. The Vanishing and the Compound, are too remarkable as 
well as too violent, to form a drift : and it need scarcely be saidj 
the Emphatic vocule cannot be so used. As to the Thoro Stress ; 
whenever it shall be generaly employed as a boorish drift, on long 
quantities;; the peculiar music of speech, every oratorical grace, and 
the comon social and wayside decencies of the tongue, will long 
before have left it. 

There is a point worthy of some attention, in the art of read- 
ing, and nearly related to the subject of this section. I mean that 
notable change of voice, required in the transition from one para- 
graph or division of discourse to another. It may be suposed, 
this is already included in the foregoing history of drift. Should 
there be a strong or peculiar expresion in the new paragraph, it 
will be plainly distinguished by its proper character. Yet with- 
out seeing the page, we sometimes know that a reader is pasing to 
a new subject, even when there is no striking alteration of style : 
and when the plain diatonic melody continues, after the transition. 



DRIFT OF THE VOICE. 443 

The recognition in this case, is produced by several means. First. 
By the period preceding the change, being made with that most 
complete close, the prepared cadence ; this indicates the termina- 
tion of a preceding, and the transition to another subject. Second. 
By a pause, longer than that between sentences nearly related to 
each other. Third. By the suceding sentence or paragraph, be- 
gining at a pitch above or below the line of the previous curent. 
Fourth. By a striking contrast between the triad of the cadence 
preceding a pause, and the outset of a folowing phrase. 

These vocal indications make the change of subject obvious, 
when a peculiar construction of the sentence imediately folowing 
the period, defers the development of its thot or expresionj and 
renders it imposible to ascertain, by the few first words, whether 
the proximate sentences are imediately or remotely related to each 
other. 

From a review of this subject j it apears that many of the vocal 
signs may be continuously used as a drift, without producing 
monotony ; some admiting of repetition, only to a certain extent ; 
others cannot be aplied beyond the solitary place of emphasis. By 
a beautiful fitnes, and consistency, these signs when inadmisible as 
a drift, have a very striking character, and are reserved for only 
the ocasional purposes of emphatic distinction. From this cause, 
the downward eighth, with its impresive intonation, is never used 
in drift. The case is similar with the wider forms of the wave ; 
and with the rising third, fifth, and octave, when not employed 
for interogation. 

After what has been said, a little atention will show that several 
drifts may exist at once, in the same melody. A curent of the 
second, of short time, and of loudnes, may be united. In like 
maner we may have a combination of the drifts of the piano or 
the forte, with a wave of the second, a long quantity, and a me- 
dian stress. The Header can ascertain which of them may be 
combined, by knowing the compatible characteristics of the several 
means of expresion ; for they are united in every practicable way. 

It is not necesary to give extracts from authors, to ilustrate the 
various kinds of drift. With a knowledge of the modes of the 
voice, and their forms, together with the foregoing history of their 
general and particular uses, further explanation is unecesary. For 



444 DEIFT OF THE VOICE. 

I am not less solicitous to limit the pages of this esay, than desirous 
to extend the measure of its instruction. 



We have spoken of the material of drift, variously consisting 
of the several modes of the voice. It may be otherwise regarded 
as directed by thot and pasion, which respectively employ the 
forms, degrees and varieties of those modes. From this view, 
and from what we have learned in previous parts of this esay, it 
apearsj the modes of the voice may be generalized with every 
other voluntary and designed animal action ; and shown to be like 
them, directed by a preceding mental condition. This being the 
entire proces of the mind with vocal signs, it folows that the indi- 
vidual state of thot or pasion, and its directive mental curent or 
Drift, each produces respectively, its individual vocal sign, and its 
intended vocal curent. Nor can there be good reading without 
it ; for an apropriate mental drift is required to direct and sustain 
the varied character of uterance. A dignified curent of unexcited 
thot, with its proper constituents under full comand, and with 
suficient practice, will always insure a just execution of the plain 
diatonic or thotive drift. A reverentive and admirative curent 
will direct a still dispasionate, but more solemn and dignified uter- 
ance of its curent sign. And in like maner, the mental curent of 
the various pasions will direct the proper vocal curent for each. 
If then the mental curent of the three several styles should be 
interupted, there must be a change in the uterance : and we may 
percevej that a well-ordered state of mindj a full knowledge and 
comand of the constituents of the voicej an acurate ear, and an 
inteligent exercise of it, are four principal causes of corect and 
elegant speech. We learned formerly j there is no long continued 
curent of these several states of mind, nor of their vocal signs ; 
and that the diferent states, with their signs often interchangeably 
displace each other. This does not however afect the acordance 
between the mind and the voicej the great esential of a true and 
elegant elocution ; for the vocal curent changes with the state of 
mind, and speech is still consistent with its rule. 



DRIFT OF THE VOICE. 445 

From a proper physical investigation, this apears to be the uni- 
versal means for executing the united purposes of the mind and 
the voicej destined under the influence of education and taste, to 
suplant the delusions of that metaphysical ignorance, or a knowl- 
edge of nothing j in which every asuming Individual gropes among 
his own conceits, for the elocutionary Intuition that may enable 
him to read with proper ' understanding and feeling ; ? but with 
its Legion of different Individualities, can never frame for itself 
a general rule of vocal expresion; and that with the contentious 
temper of contradictory notions, can only set the Intuitive c feeling 
and understanding ' of one individual, against those of another. 

I will ilustrate this subject of mental and vocal drift, by a 
familiar example. Let the Reader give an important direction to 
a servant. He will perceve in himself, an earnest and moderately 
imperative state of mind, the drift or curent of which is not to 
be broken, except by explanation, or by a pasing reflection. The 
vocal drift of this Direction is diatonic, with the downward third 
or fifth, on the acented sylables, acording to the earnestnes of the 
case. Under this vocal sign the direction will accord with the 
state of mind. And whenever we shall ocupy ourselves on the 
state and action of our minds, with as much interest as we take in 
our selfish wants, and acts of folly or erorj that state and action 
will be as self-perceptible as the vocal sign which denotes it. We 
will aply this principle of the acording mental and vocal drift, to 
the scene of Hamlet with the Player. 

Hamler/s part has three purposes : Direction^ and as Shakspeare 
could not or never would write, without themj Coment, and Re- 
flection. The first is here distinguished by italics ; the coment by 
curved, and the reflection by angular brackets. The purpose of 
the inclusive interlinear braces will be stated presently. 

Ham. Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, tripingly upon 
the tongue : (but if you mouth it, as many of our players do, I had as lief the 
town-crier spoke my lines.) Nor do not saw the air too much ivith your hand, 
thus ; but use all gently : for in the very tempest, torent, and as I may say, 
whirlwind of your pasion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may 
give it smoothness. [0, it ofends me to the soul, to hear a robustious periwig- 
pated felow tear a pasion to taters, to very 'rags, to split 1 the ears of the 
groundlings ; who for the most part, are capable of nothing but inexplicable 
dumb-show and noise : I would have such a felow 'vvhiped, for o'erdoing 1 Ter- 



446 DRIFT OF THE VOICE. 

magant ; it out-herods Herod :] Pray you avoid it. Be not too tame neither, 
but let your own discretion be your tutor : suit the action to the word, the word to 
the action; with this special observance, that you overstep not the modesty of 
Nature ; (for any thing so overdone is from the purpose of playing, whose 
end, both at the first, and now, was and 'isj to hold! as it were, the miror up to 
Nature ; to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own 'jmageT^ncT 1 the very 
age and body of the 'time, his' form and presure. ) Now this overdone, or come 
tardy off, tho it make the unskilful laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve ; 
the censure of which one, must in your alowance, o'er weigh a whole theater of 
others. [O, there be players, that I have seen play, and heard others praise 
and. that highly, not to speak it profanely, that neither having the acent of 
Christians, nor the gait of Christian, pagan, nor man, have so struted and 
belowed, that I have thot some of Nature's journeymen had made them, and 
not made them well^ they imitated humanity so abominably.] 

Player. I hope we have reformed that indifferently with us. 

Ham. 0, reform it altogether, and let those that play your clowns, speak 
no more than is set down for them: (for there be of them, that will themselves 
r laughj to set on 1 some quantity of baren spectators to laugh too ; tho in the 
meantime, some necesary question of the play be then to be considered ; that's 
vilainous; and shows a most pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it.) Go 
make you ready. 

The mental and the vocal Drift for the Directive part of this 
Advice, was described under the preceding example of a strict 
order to a servant. The Coment being something explanatory, 
or ilustrative, or questionablej and employing a diferent state of 
mind, is to be utered with a less positive intonation. The Re- 
flective portion embracing the mental condition of disaprobation, 
or derision, or contempt, should receve the more forcible expresion 
of earnestnes, and sneer. And both the Coment and Reflection 
are to be given with a variety of upward and downward intervals, 
and waves j as the knowledge and the taste of the speaker, grounded 
on the philosophy of the voice, may direct. 

To ilustrate some of our principles of stres and intonation j I 
have merely marked with the comon acentual symbol, what apear 
to be emphatic words ; but have not time to asign causes for the 
choice. At six places I have included under interlinear braces, 
certain words to be caried beyond their apointed and still preserved 
pauses, on the phrase of the monotone. The purpose of this 
monotone is to unite upon the ear, the act with its cause or pur- 
pose : as in the first casej the tearing to rags, is to split the ears 
of the groundlings ; in the second, the cause of the whiping, is the 



DRIFT OF THE VOICE. , 447 

6 > ei , doing of Termagant ; in the third, fourth, and fifth, the pur- 
pose of playing, is severaly to hold the miror up to nature^ to show 
virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the body of the 
time, his form and presure. In the sixth, the idle laugh j is to set- 
on idle spectators to laugh too. In this reading, it is the monotone 
bridging as it were the pauses, with its level reach of voice, that 
asists materialy in conecting the cause and purpose with their 
object. There is an example of the emphatic tie on the words 
player's, play, praise, that, and have* with a moderate flight, and 
abatement on intermediate clauses. The design of this grouping 
is to conect by vocal means, five words separated in the construc- 
tion; thereby to bring to the foreground of perception, the player, 
his habit of bombastic action, and his unmerited praise. If in 
this instance, who were substituted for that* the chain of the em- 
phatic tie would be stronger and brighter, from the greater stres 
practicable on its tonic element, and indefinite quantity. The tie 
is also to be aplied to judicious, and which one; to o'erstep, and so; 
to end and hold and miror. I would set a feeble cadence on ground- 
lings ; and a rising third on the laugh, that folows unskilful; a 
faling third on grieve; and a faling fifth on well, after made them. 

On the subject of mental drift, I would ask the Reader j if he 
does not know when he is angry, or pleased, or sorowful, aston- 
ished, or inquisitive ? For these are curent states of mental drift, 
whichj if bad example has not confused or destroyed the original 
conection between the mind and the voice j will enable him to 
speak properly, under a general rule of Educated Nature, that 
Shakspeare here aludes to, but did not turn aside to explain. 

In practicaly regarding the comprehensive bearing of these 
masterly hints of advice, I might show it to be an exemplification 
of a pasing thotj that if generaly, a player is, in his human char- 
acter, as obviously educated to bad reading, as the ' sparks fly up- 
wardj ? Nature, by the instinct of her Dramatic Favorite, has 
shown, in his unusual endowment, how ( prone' she is to perfec- 
tion, by the indication of her laws of a true and expresive elocu- 
tion, enfolded within these general but sagacious precepts. And 
must I draw atention to it ? There is not, alas ! thruout the 
whole leson, except in the vague direction about actionj an alu- 
sion to the important mode of Speaking-Intonation ; which how- 



448 VOCAL SIGNS OF THOT AND PASION. 

ever, from the Author's many metaphoric references to it, and 
from his fine musical earj must have strongly afected him. Nor 
can we avoid infering, that in Shakspeare's day, the subject of l the 
tones of the voice' with their only nomenclature of high and low, 
was suposed then, as this 'age of progres' regards it nowj to be 
beyond the reach of analysis, and consequently without a claim to 
be tat. And here the Great Philosopher-Poet, strangely unlike 
himself, in ceasing to observe and. reflect j went-alongj as Bacon 
the Great Poet-Philosopher did with his belief in a metaphysical 
Spiritj harnesed-in with the unthinking mind of the crowd. 

Enuf has been urged in this volume, against the self-suficient 
1 genius' of the Actor, and the ' natural maner,' of the old school 
of elocution^ to prevent what is here said, from encouraging 
a conceit, that with only an instinctive thot and pasion, and a 
voice to uter them, we can spontaneously speak with propriety and 
taste : a notion altogether as vain, as that with the best instincts 
of virtue and sagacity, the great mass of us can, under the present 
narow and conflicting systems of scholastic, moral, political, and 
religious education, ever hope to be wise, or hapy or great. 



SECTION XLVIII. 

Of the Vocal Signs of Thot and Pasion. 

In describing the various modes and forms of the voice, I 
severaly named and exemplified, the most striking distinction 
between the Diatonic vocal-signs, denoting the simple state of 
mind, we caled thots ; and the Expresive signs of that active state, 
variously and vaguely termed in comon language, ' emotion, senti- 
ment, feeling, and pasion. ' This should, to the extent it proposes, 
satisfy the Reader; for it describes, in its own general way, all 
that to me at least, is audible and capable of measurement. But 
former systems of Elocution, having embraced a detailed enumera- 
tion of the pasions, without however, posesing the means, and 



VOCAL SIGNS OF THOT AND PASION. 449 

without perceving the necesity, of designating the special and 
apropriate voice for these various states of the mindj a like enu- 
meration, clasing the vocal sign respectively with the thot, and the 
pasion, may perhaps be demanded here. 

There is a kind of hypocritical compliment always paid to 
originality, with this inconsistent purpose^ that mankind are eager 
to receve what is new, provided it is told in the old way. I can 
supose a Reader who, after all that has been said on the states of 
mind, and their vocal signsj may from the habit of a scholastic 
method and a term, still look for a separate section on the i Pas- 
ions/ embracing- the many unmeaning atempts to describe their 
expresion. To change this habit, if a habit can be changed by 
any thing entirely diferent from itselfj and to satisfy an expecta- 
tion by an unexpected substitute for its erorsj I ofer in the present 
section, a more systematic view and conected detail of the subject, 
and at the same time enlarge and further ilustrate our former 
acount of the vocal signs of thot and pasion. 

I had ocasion in the introduction, to notice the limited degree 
of our knowledge, in some of the scholastic departments of Elocu- 
tion j and having, from the first, resigned myself to the authority 
of observation, have endeavored far as posible, to avoid that refer- 
ence to old systems and opinions, which might produce both con- 
troversy, and quotation: knowingj there is within the limited 
pretensions of these departments, much that is uninteligible, and 
more that is eroneous. We are now about to leave, for a moment, 
the definite and luminous prototype of Nature, to contrast her 
lights, with the mysterious shades of the opinions of men. 

No author, as it apears, has paid more atention to the subject 
of Inflection or the rise and fall of the voice, particularly in its 
practical aplication, than Mr. Walker. Indefinite as he is on this 
point, he excedes in specified rule, all that is said by Aristotle, 
Cicero, Dionysius, Quinctilian, and the Older Musicians. It is 
true, Mr. Walker owes his superficial analysis to them; but in his 
knowledge of the purpose and use of Inflection j infering from 
their records j he fairly ' treads upon that Greek and Roman glory, ' 
which national vanity first proclaimed, and the subsequent cre- 
dulity of European scholarship was simple enuf to magnify and 
repeat. 



450 VOCAL SIGNS OF THOT AND PASION. 

Let us hear then what Mr. Walker says of the vocal represen- 
tation of the pasions. 

■ It now remains, ' observes this author,* ' to say something of 
the pasions and emotions of the speaker. These are entirely inde- 
pendent on the modulation of the voice, tho often confounded with 
it; for modulation relates only to speaking loudly or softly, in a 
high or in a low key, while the tones of the pasions or emotions 
mean only that quality of sound that indicates the feelings of the 
speaker without reference to the pitch, or loudness of the voice. ' 

Again in the hundred and sixty-sixth page. 

' The truth is, the expresion of pasion or emotion consists in 
giving a distinct and specific quality to the sounds we use, rather 
than in increasing or diminishing their quantity, or in giving this 
quantity any local direction, upwards or dowmvards.' 

And again in another work.f 

' As to the tones of the pasions which are so many and so various, 
these in the opinion of one of the best judges in the kingdom, are 
qualities of sound ocasioned by certain vibrations of the organs of 
speech, independent on high, low, loud, soft, quick, sloiv, forcible or 
feeble.'t 

It often happens with modern aspirants after some of the 
sciences in the schoolsj as it did with those who anciently under- 
went the mumery of admision to the mysteries of Eleusisj to hear 
themselves adressed in an incomprehensible language. What in- 
struction, for instance, can be gathered from this definition, if it 
strictly deserves the name ? ' The tones of the passions mean only 
that quality of sound that indicates the feelings.' Here instead of 
an explanatory description of a thing, we are presented with a 
truism in a periphrase. For, as the terms ' pasions' and ' feelings' 
must here be synonymous, as well as those of Hone' and 'quality 
of sound,' the varied proposition may stand thus : 'the tones of the 
(or the tones which indicate the) pasions, mean only the tones which 

* Elements of Elocution, page 308, Am. ed. 

f Observations on Greek and Latin quantity, apended to Walker's Key to 
the pronunciation of ancient proper names. 

J Let us here consider, that Mr. Walker's opinions have been, for the greater 
part of a century, and still are, the source from which nearly all the school- 
books on elocution have been drawn, in this Country, and thruout the British 
Dominions. 



YOCAL SIGNS OF THOT AND FASION. 451 

indicate the pasions :' or with less waste, ' the tones of the pasions 
are the tones of the pasions/ 

The second extract however, seems to contain a real distinction 
between the subject and the predicate : as by 'quality' the author 
may mean that mode of the voice, specified in this esay, by the 
termsj full, harsh, slender, natural, falsete, whisper and orotund • 
for these are the only existing forms of vocal sound, besides those 
which Mr. Walker has excluded from his definition. But if pitch, 
which is here meant by 'local direction/ be denied a place among 
the signs of pasionj where shall we class the plaintive wave of the 
semitone, the rising intervals of interogation, and the downward 
vanish that conspicuously mark the various degrees of surprise ? 
Where arrange the efect of the diferent measures of time, and 
the various* degrees of stres, if speaking 'loudly or softly/ and 
'increasing or diminishing the quantity' of sound have no agency 
in the vocal representation of pasion ? 

The real motive of Mr. Walker, in excluding intonation, stres, 
and time, from among the signs of the pasions, and in his assign- 
ing the expresion of speech to a certain unexplained cause called 
' quality/ is clearly manifested in the last quotation ; for here, this 
opinion, on the expresive power of his term quality j as it is no more 
than a wordj is ascribed to 'one of the best judges in the kingdom.' 
After all then, this confused notion concerning the pasions was 
adopted upon authority, by Mr. Walker • and this confesion of his 
faith in others, certainly did not acord with his repeated claims to 
originality of observation. An original observer holding himself 
responsible for his report, cros-questions the testimony of his 
senses ; the borower of opinions is always less scrupulousj as he 
himself never designs to stand security against the folly or mis- 
chief of his promulgations. 

What has been recorded in our previous history, may induce 
the Reader to smile at the above quotations • and enable him to 
perceve, that the vocal signs of the pasions are no more than the 
every-day audible sounds of the manifest Modes, Forms, and de- 
grees of Vocality, Time, Force, Abruptnes, and Pitch ; and that 
the greater part of these signs are derived from those very causes, 
which are declared by Mr. Walker, to have no agency in impas- 
ioned uterance. With regard to the ' specific quality ' here asumed 



452 VOCAL SIGNS OF THOT AND PASION. 

as the vocal material of expresion, it is not alowable to supose, 
the mode of voice caled in this essay, Vocality or Kind, is meant 
by Mr. Walker's term; his acount of ' quality ' being complicated 
with an atempt to derive its proximate cause, from some uninteli- 
gible system of ' vibrations.' 

Let the whole pass as an instance of that unatural paternity in 
instruction, which when asked for bread, dispenses nothing but a 
stone. And at the same time let it apologize for any aparently 
unbecoming expresions that may have droped from my pen, when 
unavoidably brought into contact with those grosser erors of indo- 
lence or authority, whichj viewed along with the means, and pre- 
tensions of Magisterial as distinct from Natural Science^ seem to 
be almost unpardonable. . 

In reconsidering the subject of Expresion, under another view, 
it is not my intention to go into a disertation on the pasions, or to 
contend with authors about the scheme of their arangement. I 
shall describe them with reference only to the purpose of the 
present section, without designing to regard their other relation- 
ships. 

In the sixth section, we described three diferent conditions of 
the States of Mindj and three forms of the vocal signs, that sev- 
eraly represent them : but here for a moment, clasing the inter- 
thoughtive with the pasionative, we regard the states of mind, 
under two divisions. To the division of Simple Thot, the inter- 
val of the second is alotted. To that of Pasion, the numerous 
forms and varieties of the other intervals, and the impresive forms 
of vocality, time, abruptnes, and force. These two divisions of 
the voicej the thotive, and the pasionative, include the Natural 
signs, which instinctively denote their respective states of mind. 

But other means for denoting thot and pasion being still re- 
quired;; Artificial signs were devised. These artificial signs are 
words, conventionaly formed to describe these same states of mind. 

To ilustrate the purpose and use of both these classes of signs, 
and to show their relation to each other, I will here briefly again 
present, under its two divisions, our former view of the states 
of mind*, on which we founded the distinction of their several 
signs. 

The human mind is the place of representation of all the ex- 



VOCAL SIGNS OF THOT AND PASION. 453 

istences, actions, and relationships of nature, within the limit of 
the senses. These representatives Ave call perceptions. Percep- 
tions are either the pasive pictures of things ; or they exist with 
an activity, capable of so afecting the physical organs, as to impel 
us to seek the object that produces them, or to avoid it. This active 
or vivid class of perceptions comprehends the pasions. The states 
of mind here described, exist then in diferent forms and degrees, 
from the simple unexcited thot, to the highest energy of pasion ; 
and the comon but indefinite termsj ' idea, sentiment, emotion, 
feeling, and pasion ' are the vague verbal-signs of these degrees 
and forms. Nor does there apear to be, where they interjoin, any 
line of clasifi cation, for distinctly separating the mental conditions 
of thot and of pasion; as simple thots without changing their 
meaning, do from interest or other excitement often asume the 
degree and brightnes of a pasion. 

This being one of the many views to be taken of the states of 
mind, we pass to the consideration of the efects produced on the 
visible and vocal parts of the human frame, by those thots and 
pasions. These efects have been caled their signs, or physical ex- 
presion. They are of many forms and places ; and are severaly 
marked by sound, feature, change of color, and variation of mus- 
cular action: but we are at present concerned only with vocal 
sound. 

The voice, as just stated, has then two distinct clases of signs : 
the Natural or vocal, so to distinguish it ; and the Artificial or 
Verbal. 

The Natural or Vocal consist severaly of time, force, abruptnes, 
vocality and pitch. They have a two-fold agency ; for in their 
various ways, and by their unasisted means, they are sometimes 
significant of the states of mind ; but they may be, and generaly 
are joined with the artificial or articulated signs. In the former 
state they are the voice of infancy, before the period of complete 
articulation ; are comon to man and the sub-animals ; and are used 
thro life, both alone, and combined with the Artificial or Verbal, 
to denote the animal pasions of surprise, love, anger, fear, desire, 
search or inquiry, sorow, afection, joy, pain, comand, and other 
states of mind that may be resolved into these. 

The Artificial signs or words are acquired after infancy. These 



454 VOCAL SIGNS OF THoT AND PASION. 

may denote any and every state of mind, when joined with the 
Natural, or may describe those states, without them. They are 
produced by the use of the articulative mechanism both on vocality 
and aspiration ; and as descriptive signs, are more numerous than 
the natural. 

These are the two classes of oral signs, severaly and jointly 
representing the diferent states of mind, in thot and pasion. Some 
of these states are vocal or instinctive, and have the natural signs. 
Others are the result of human inteligence, and the social relations, 
and have no such signs, as those ordained by Nature in her own 
original mental and vocal creations. The mind has natural or 
vocal signs for pain, surprise, and anger ; but none of any definite 
character for hope, contentment, and gratitude. 

Here then are two essentialy diferent means for representing the 
various states of mind ; some of these i thots, emotions, passions/ 
call them by what indefinite term we will, being denoted by cer- 
tain forms of stres, time, vocality, and pitch j Nature's instinctive 
signs, in the voice ; joined to a verbal or conventional language ; 
others can be described only by a verbal or conventional lan- 
guage, which may not cary the natural or vocal-signs. We signify 
comand by the downward fifth, or octave ; complaint by the semi- 
tone ; and the meaning of these intervals is the same in all nations, 
under any conventional sign. But it is not in our power, to expres 
the states of gratitude, and iresolution, except we describe these 
states of mind, by apointed and arbitrary words, that may vary in 
every diferent language. 

Let us then, by terms, clearly distinguish these two classes of 
signs. When we denote thot and pasion by means of Vocality, 
Time, Force, or Intonation, either with or without conventional 
words, we will call it, the Instinctive or Natural or Vocal sign. 
When we describe or indicate thot and pasion by a sentence, a 
phrase, or a word, without the use of vocal signs, co-expresive 
with the wordsj we will call it, the Conventional or Artificial or 
Verbal sign. 

Altho it apears we have not an instinctive or vocal sign for 
every state of mind ; yet every state of mind may be expresed by 
a conventional sign ; for one can verbaly, and in the plain diatonic 
melody, inform another j he is astonished, and convey a knowledge 



VOCAL SIGXS OF THOT AND PASION. 455 

of his being under that state ; as certainly as he can by the most 
striking use of the downward octave, which is its natural sign. 
When astonishment is to be represented on a word or phrase, 
which does not describe it, it is necesary to employ its instinctive 
or natural sign. We have seen in the seventeenth section, that 
a question may be asked by a gramaticai construction alone, with- 
out the aid of intonation. And further, an interogatory can be 
distinctly conveyed, merely by the verbal statement, that a ques- 
tion is asked : and this is often done in writen discourse, without 
afixing the 'note' of interogation. 

In consequence of there being Instinctive signs in the larangeal 
voice alone, to denote pasion, and Artificial signs in language, to 
describe itj one instinctive sign can with the asistance of the arti- 
ficial, represent two or more pasions or their degrees ; for, of two . 
phrases with the same vocal, but with a diferent verbal signj the 
vocal sign being the same, cannot in itself severaly signify difer- 
ent states of mind ; a specification, by the verbal terms, describes 
the diference, under the identical vocal form. Supose, for in- 
stance, one should use the imperative phrase, be gone, with a forci- 
ble downward vanish of the octave ; and again, with the same 
intonation, should say, well done ; the diference between the two 
states of mind, in comand, and in exclamatory aprobation, would 
be distinctly represented respectively by the imperative verb, and 
by the interject! ve phrase, notwithstanding their identical intona- 
tion. Thus too, the same semitone is used for the expresion of 
pain, discontent, pity, grief, and contritionj and yet in all these dif- 
erent cases, the states of mind are marked by the conventional lan- 
guage on which the semitone is employed. We are now prepared 
to take a general view of the subject before us; which, to borow 
a technicality from another art, may be called the Semiotica of 
Elocution ; a term which as yet incomprehensible, in its Into- 
native meaning at least j is, by embracing the full and just adap- 
tation of the voice to the mind, destined hereafter to be receved 
as comprising the whole esthetic and practical philosophy of 
speech. 

To repeat the important distinction^ the Semiotic ways and 
means of Elocution, or the several signs of Thot and Pasion, arej 
First. Instinctive or Natural; consisting of the forms, degrees, 



456 VOCAL SIGNS OF THOT AND PASION. 

and varieties of the five modes of the voice. And Second. Arti- 
ficial or Verbal; having the descriptive power of conventional 
language. 

In the uses of discourse^ and we here return to our three-fold 
division; natural signs, under one condition of the modes of the 
voice form the thotive narative or diatonic Drift. Under another 
of moderate expresionj the reverentive or admirative. And under 
the use of all the expresive powers of vocality, time, force, abrupt- 
nes and intonation, the vivid character of the pasionative. 

The Artificial have, in themselves, neither the character nor the 
voice of the natural ; but can by words, universaly describe their 
efects, and may represent thot and pasion, equaly with the natural 
signs. A union of the natural and the artificial gives the most 
exact and impresive vocal representation of the thotive, the inter- 
thotive, and the pasionative purposes of the mind.* 

* The Verbal and the Vocal means for denoting the states of mind, are each 
so esential to the purposes of speech, that it is dificult to determine which is 
most significant of thot and pasion. The power of giving a diferent pasion- 
ative meaning to the same word, by a varied vocality, stres, time, or intona- 
tion, would imply the vocal or instinctive signs, to be more efective than the 
verbal or conventional. But other facts lead us to conclude^ we are some- 
times as much indebted to the descriptive agency of words, as to any expresive 
eficacy of the voice. 

It will hereafter be shown in the analysis of Song, that every function which 
we have ascribed to speech, is employed in its Elaborate style of execution ; 
and tho it is truej the semitone has a plaintive character, even if sung with- 
out words ; still the rising and faling concretes of the third, fifth, and octave, 
when not set to words which describe the expresion of these intervals in speech, 
are constantly heard in what are caled songs of Agility, without denoting in- 
terogation, positivenes, or surprise. In like maner, the various forms of stres 
which are properly expresive in sylabic uterance, seem to be almost without 
meaning in the inarticulate movements of song. 

A still more striking view of the power of conventional language, as the 
means of expresion, when contrasted with the power of instinctive intonation, 
is displayed in the voice of sub-animals, particularly that of birds. 
V .When a familiarity with our history will have given the means of discrim- 
ination, it will be perceved that birds employ all the vocal signs of speech, 
without expresing surprise, interogation, positivenes, and scorn, together 
with the repose of the cadence; which would be plainly conveyed by those 
signs, joined with words that describe these several mental states. The ex- 
presion of plaintivenes by the semitone, in the voice of the dove, and of 
pleasure by the tremor on other intervals, in the horse when snufing his food, 
are indeed made without a verbal sign, and yet are identical with the display 



VOCAL SIGXS OF THOT AND PASIOX. 457 

"We have learned that the means of expresion are always aplied 
in combination. There must be at least two conjoined, and there 

of similar states by the human voice. Still it must be reeoleeted that laugh- 
ter and crying, the analogies to these sub-animal expresions, are in speech, 
generaly inarticulate, and are to be considered as merely instinctive animal 
signs, in man. 

It is then the union of an arbitrary Verbal designation of a state of mind 
with its natural or Vocal sign, that constitutes the true and esential means of 
expresion in speech. 

I must here beg the .Reader to excuse a digresion from our subject. In the 
course of this esay many analogies might have been shown between the human 
voice, and that of the sub-animal : but I designed to avoid mingling these two 
comparative subjects of natural history. 

/ Speech is a select agregate of the vocal and articulative functions, dis- 
persedly exercised, by all animals: for there is scarcely a form of vocality, 
time, intonation, force, abruptnes, and even of articulation, which is not 
comon in severalty, to many of the sub-species, and to man. Man employs 
more of these signs than any one species, but perhaps fewer than all ; the 
principal diference consisting in his power over the structure and chain of 
the literal and sylablic function. 

Upon the ground of this identity, and with the asistance of an exact meas- 
urement, and definite nomenclature of the human voice, aforded by this esayj 
What is there to prevent the voices of animals being taken as one of the designa- 
tions of species, in the systematic arange?nent of Zoology ? 

/ Naturalists have sometimes atempted this in a rude way, by a reference to 
alphabetic sounds, and to the modes of time and stres in words and phrases. 
"When boys without the least atention to the diference of vocality in the cases, 
find a resemblance in the shrill sumer-whistle of the American partridge, to 
the words ' bo-bob-white ; ' and think they pronounce the short repeated 
phrase of the ' whip-poor-will ; ' in its name, which some of the native In- 
dians with closer imitation, call muc-ha-wis ; the similarity lies between the 
impresion of the acentual stres and the time of uterance in the two cases ; for 
the whistle and the phrase, as well as many mechanical noises, resemble, at 
the whim of the listener, any words with an equal number of sylable-like 
impulses, and the same condition of quantity and acent. 

/ Birds in the endowment of voice, have First; A single Chirp, including 
severaly, every variation of vocality, time, and force, with every form of in- 
tonation, from the feeblest efort in the simple interval, to movements of wider 
concretes and waves, in the cry, the shriek and scream; and in some cases, 
even the note of song. Second ; A phrase, of two, three, or four constituents, 
severaly of every vocality, time, force, and every form of intonation. Third ; 
A Medley, composed of a heterogeneous sucesion of chirps, and phrases. 
Fourth; A Melody, such as it is, of rapid concretes, of the singer's 'pure 
tonej ' in ' liquid,' smooth, and briliant vocalityj of varied force, and intona- 
tion ; but without bar, cadence, or key. This melody is distinguished by its 
continuous course of greater or less duration, without the disjointed interup- 
30 



458 VOCAL SIGNS OF THOT AND PASION. 

may be more. Gutural grating, aspiration, and the diferent forms 
of stress are necesarily aplied to some interval of pitch. The 

tions that ocur in the medley. Some birdsj I omit their systematic namesj 
have only the chirp ; as our sparow, king-bird, swalow, the woodpecker tribe, 
the blue-jay, and various hawks. Others, as our yelow-bird, robin, red-bird, 
partridge, blue-bird and whiperwil, have the chirp and phrase. Others 
again, the chirp and melody, as our thrush, cat-bird, wren, and perhaps the 
oriole, meadow-lark, and black-bird. The mocking-bird, and the canary, 
have the chirp, and the medley, as a remarkable case: and a few others 
properly caled singing birds^ but of which I cannot speak from observation^ 
may have the chirp, the phrase and the melody, under the most agreeable 
character. / 

The exact and broad observer^ for the peering Naturalists do not yet seem 
to know, what comparative phonology means, nor that the subject of the 
voice is part of natural history^ will kindly excuse the erors of this descrip- 
tion. It is ofered only as a faint and broken light, obscurely showing one of 
the outer doors of this interesting department of knowledge : and now held- 
up, with the asistance of our present analysis, from memory of rural and 
pastime observation made at school on the borders of the Susquehana before 
my thirteenth year. And would I could forget how often in thotles pleasure, 
I may have given disquietude or pang to those inocent lives, that aforded the 
means of my present contented ocupation ; and that still bring up so many 
juvenile memorials of time and place, in recording the forms of their intona- 
tion. 

| After what is here said, on the general character of the voices of Birds, and 
with the light of clasification and description contained in this esay, a culti- 
vated ear would not have much dificulty in ascertaining, whether the chirp of 
a bird is in the concrete or the radical pitch of a semitone, second, or other 
interval ; of how many constituents the phrase consists ; what, in the medley, 
are the places of pitch ; with the kind and order of its phrases; and what, 
the concrete and discrete in the melody. As far as observation extends, we 
knowj the voice of birds is unchangeable in the species; it is therefore as well 
entitled to nomenclature, provided it can be asigned definitely, as the fethers, 
beak, and claws. If language had never furnished discriminative names for 
color and form, even these characteristics, like those of the voice, would never 
have been known in the descriptions of ornithology : or rather, ornithology 
as a clasification, would be unknown. 

"Without extending our observation to the whole range of animals, within 
which we might severaly find all the varieties of the human voice, even to 
the protracted note of song, in the frogj I here give an outline of the vocal 
functions of the Mocking-bird;; ilustrative of the powers which generaly 
belong to its class. 

| The Mocking-bird has every variety and degree in Yocality, from the deli- 
cate chirp of the sparow, and harsh scream of the jay, to the gutural bass of 
the clucking of the hen. He uses every variation of Time, from a mere 
point of sound, to the quantity of our most pasionate interjections. He has 



VOCAL SIGNS OF THOT AND PASION. 459 

interval of pitch must be united with time, whether the quantity 
is long or short. The natural sign may be heard joined to the 

comand over all the intervals of the scale, both ascending and descending, in 
the discrete as well as the concrete pitch. His simple concrete exhibits the 
proper structure of the radical and vanish. He executes the wave in its equal 
and unequal, its direct and inverted forms; yet I cannot say, he uses its 
double movement. He exhibits all the forms of Stres on the concrete: the 
compound constitutes his shake. It is the diatonic shake, and consists, on its 
diferent occasions, of from five or six to ten or twelve iterations. It is not 
so rapid as the human shake, and consequently wants its liquidity; nor does 
it ever end in a ' turn, 1 but passes carelesly to anj' efort that folows. This 
shake is sometimes made on a wider interval than the second: but it is a 
slugish movement, and consists of only two or three repetitions, as we some- 
times hear it in singers, of great execution. And it is worthy of remark, 
that in this slownes, the compound stres is plainly distinguishable. He uses 
the tremor, both on a continuous line, and with its rising and falling tittelar 
skips. All this comprehensive exercise of the throat, has individually the 
form of either chirp or phrase. The continued rounds of voice, which at 
night, sometimes last for hours, form therefore a medley of chirps and 
phrases, without sucesive similarity in the relation of time, vocality, force 
or pitch ; and altogether without rythmus, cadencial close, or key. In this 
medley the phrases excede the chirps in number ; but I cannot say, how many 
of each are used. Perhaps twenty kinds would include them all : and supos- 
ing these to be diferenced by time and vocality, there would be more. Each 
set of the chirps and phrases, as it returns thru the medley, may vary in the 
number of its repetitions. A chirp may be single, or may be repeated two or 
three times, or oftener. A phrase of two constituents may in the returns of 
the medley have three, four, or more repetitions of these two ; or as sometimes 
hapens in the shake, ten or twelve : and it is the same with a phrase of the 
tremor. The phrase of three or four constituents, which last is rarely heard, 
has fewer repetitions than the more simple ones; the chirp is most frequently 
heard only once. The whole medley then, has no regularity in the return of 
its several voices, nor in the number of their repetitions, to constitute it a 
Melody./ 

It was first said by Somebody ^ perhaps himself a parot in human character^ 
while this bird mocks all others, he has no ' notes ' of his own : and then 
Everybody, mocking somebody's say, Nobody thot of doubting it. Yet upon 
this very notion of exclusive property in the voice, he has more ' Notes ' of 
his own than any other bird : and having within his compas, almost the whole 
constituency of song, whether human, or Volucralj, for Ornithology wants 
this adjective^ it would not be surprising, if other birds should recognize some 
of their suposed property, in his. When frequenting farms, with pigeons, 
hens, turkeys, and guinea-fowls, all around him; and when in the fields of 
Virginia, all day pierced by the whistle of the partridge j with his own ' notes ' 
almost stifled at night, by the panting voices of a whole settlement of whip- 
erwils, he has never, within my knowledge, been heard to mock their phrases ; 



460 VOCAL SIGNS OF THoT AND PASION. 

words of the artificial; and of the natural, there must be two 
combined, and there may be more. Not one form of expresion 
can exist separately ; and we may have under a single sylabic im- 

tho master perhaps of all the simple sounds that severally compose them. 
And certainly no Indian Farrinelli ever gave him an example of the shake. 
Mimik then, as with his own natural voice, they would make him, it would 
have been a kindly restraint on thosewho have slandered him, to have had a 
natural ear of their own to prevent it. 

We have learned^ the vocal constituents of- the song of the Mocking-bird, 
like the vocal signs in speech, are few in number ; but in each case, our igno- 
rance of the individual signs, leaving us to regard only their numerous com- 
binations, has created a belief that they are infinite. A certain vocality, or 
an interval may be heard under a variation in time ; and the same concrete, 
or tremor, or shake may difer in vocality, and in its places of pitch. 

The rule for the signs of pasion, in speech, is strictly aplicable to the voices 
of sub-animals, as regards those sounds which are purely vocal and separate 
from words. The repeated chirp, which seems to be the idle and unmeaning 
diatonic voice of birds, is generaly a short quantity, on a single rising or 
faling concrete second, or third, and rarely, as far as I have observed, on the 
wider intervals. A prolongation of the chirp is usualy expresive of their 
pasions and apetites. Pain, love, and fear, are always exhibited in the 
movement of the semitone. But I am agreeably led on towards an arange- 
ment, when I designed only to propose the scheme to others. The limited 
and perhaps imperfect maner in which, from a neglect of full observation, I 
have described this single instance of volucral intonation, may however show, 
that as there is now a system and nomenclature for the voices both of the 
garulous, and mischievous Demagogue of American Asemblies, and of this 
harmles Polyglot of the American grove, there would be no great dificulty in 
clasifying with precision, more manageable individualities of sound, in the 
other departments of vocal Zoology. 

This subject is at least curious, if not useful; yet it lies out of my way. 
The sciences have large volumes of compilation : let us have from some 
Naturalist with a good ear, a little book of original truth, on the inquiry 
here proposed. Let it be done by pure and personal observation. Let the 
author not lose his strong breath of usefulness and fame, by a puerile precipi- 
tancy after reputation ; nor hasten with his unripenes, in the market-like fear 
of being forestaled. Patient, enthusiastic, and unostentatious study j independ- 
ent observation and thotj and a disinterested love of truths with their sure 
and great results in science, are always solitary in an age, and cannot there- 
fore be forestaled ; and on this point, as in promises under another name, it 
will be with those who seek the unaltered, and unalterable truths of nature, 
that the last in its proper season, shall be First. 

I add at the time of this sixth Edition, that forty years ago, the preceding 
Note was ofered to the atention of the Naturalist ; who with a prying and 
industrious ambition to have a new Bug, or an Old Fossil-bone named after 



VOCAL SIGNS OF THOT AND PASION. 461 

pulse, a long quantity, a wide interval, aspiration, and stres, all 
simultaneous in efecting a particular purpose in speech. 

The folowing is a sumary of the instinctive or vocal signs, de- 
noting the states of mind, we have caled thotive, reverentive, and 
pasionative. 

In the thirty-fourth section, it was proposed to employ the 
terms Piano, and Forte, for the degrees of force, respectively above 
and below the distinct and becoming audibility of that well-bred 
conversation, which equaly avoids an overbearing loudness on one 
side, and a fashionable mincing, or a faint-mouthed and perplexing 
afectation, on the other. And first ; 

The Piano of the Voice. Some states of mind, together with 
certain conditions of the body that may be combined with them, 
are properly expressed by a piano, or moderated voice, in curent 
discourse. These states, and conditions are those of humility, 
modesty, shame, doubt, iresolution, apathy, caution, repose, fa- 
tigue, and prostration from disease. They generaly employ the 
simple diatonic melody : some however, with a piano or a feeble 
uterance, use the semitone, and the wave of the second. Of this 
kind are pity, grief, and awe. 

The Forte of the Voice. This sign, as the reverse of the last, 
is apropriate to states of mind directing muscular energy, and 
vivid degrees of pasion. Some of these states are signified by a 
high degree of force ; for in adition to those which employ it as 
a leading characteristic, such as rage, wrath, fear, and horor, some 
that depend for their expresion, chiefly on intonation or acentual 
stres, do at the same time asume the character of forte or loudnes. 
Of this class are astonishment, exultation, and laughter. 

Quicknes of Voice. Inasmuch as quickness of the curent melody 
generaly goes with Short Quantity, in individual sylables, we do 
not make separate heads for these two subjects. Some states of 
mind, under this division, are likewise expresed by other signs, 
particularly by Loudnes ; as anger, rage, mirth, railery and im- 
patience. Many states having their principal signs in forms of 
intonation and stres, are joined also with quicknes of voice. 

himself, so narows the scope of his duty, as to render him indiferent to the 
fact, that the sub-animal voice is embraced by Natural History, and is an 
interesting, if not a distinguishing part of Zoological clasiflcation. 



462 VOCAL SIGNS OF THOT AND PASION. 

Slownes of Voice. Speakers who have no comand over quan- 
tity, afect to be deliberate, by momentary rest between their words. 
But slow time in discourse, if not made by extended sylabic quan- 
tity, would from its frequent pauses, be monotonous and formal. 
Slow time and long quantity are an esential cause of dignified 
uterance, and are efected on the wave ; this being the continuous 
return of an interval into itself j one of the means for producing 
an extension of time, without destroying the equable concrete of 
speech. Slownes of time, with its constituent long quantity, is 
properly employed for many states of mind ; as sorow, grief, 
respect, veneration, dignity, apathy, contrition, and all others 
embracing refinement, and moderation. 

Vocality. It is unnecesary to repeat here all the terms denoting 
the forms of this Mode. The folowing are some of them, with 
their respective states of mind anexed. Harshnes is directed by 
anger, and imperative authority : gentlenes by grief, modesty and 
commiseration : the whisper, which is an aspirated voice, by se- 
crecy. The falsete is heard in the whine of peevishnes, in the 
high tremulous pitch of mirth, and in the piercing scream of 
teror. The full body of the orotund, in a cultivated speaker, 
gives satisfactory expresion to solemnity and grandeur. 

The Rising and the Fcding Semitone. The simple rise of the 
semitone is not a frequent form of expresion, as most plaintive 
intonations call for long quantity, and are therefore properly repre- 
sented by the wave of this interval. Still complaint, grief, and 
other states of like import, may sometimes be made with an 
earnestnes, requiring a short sylabic time. In this case the voice 
cannot bear the delay of the wave, and efects all the purposes of 
semitonic intonation, by the simple rise or fall of the concrete, 
with the adition when necesary, of the radical or vanishing stres. 

The Rising and the Fating Second or Tone. Those states of 
mind, called thots, in contradistinction to pasionsj those naratives 
or descriptions, which denote things as they are in themselves, 
without reference to our relation to them, on the point of pleasure 
or pain, desire or aversion, interest or injury, are all represented 
by the plain unobtrusive interval of the second, either in its 
upward or downward course. The various uses of the voice, 
properly called Expresion, have something so striking in their 



VOCAL SIGNS OF THOT AND PASION. 463 

character, that the atentive observer may easily recognize them. 
When there is an absence of this expresion, he may conclude^ the 
curent of speech is in the diatonic melody. 

The Rising Third, Fifth and Octave. These intervals severaly 
express diferent degrees of the same state of mind : the distinc- 
tions between the states themselves are designated by the verbal 
signs that describe them. In their varying extent, they represent 
interogation, as moderate, dignified, or earnest. Combined with 
other vocal means they add to the question, particularly on the 
octave, the character of quaintnes, sneer, and derision. With as- 
piration they have the efect of the downward intervals, and indi- 
cate serious surprise and its congenial states. They expres a con- 
ditional meaning, on emphatic words. Gutural vibration adds 
scorn to a question on the wider of these intervals ; and joins to 
their character in emphasisj haughtines, disdain, reproach, indig- 
nation, and contempt. As the deliberate execution of these inter- 
vals requires long quantity, they have not the extended time, and 
consequently, not the solemn and dignified character, they assume 
when doubled into the wave. 

The Downward Third, Fifth and Octave. These severally ex- 
press, both different degrees of the same state of mind, and states 
different among themselves. They are emphatically the signs of 
surprise, astonishment, wonder, and amazement ; and altho these 
states are not identical, still, each in its peculiarity, is represented 
upon these falling intervals : the specific difference being marked, 
either by their varied extent, or by the conventional phrase to 
which they are applied. These intervals also denote a positive- 
ness, and a settled conviction on the part of the speaker ; hence 
they are given to phrases of authority, command, confidence, and 
satisfaction. A downward movement, we have learned, also pro- 
duces the terminative repose of a cadence ; and consequently when 
not joined with force, is well suited to express the state of quie- 
tudej in resignation, despair, and the condition of mind which 
attends fatigue. And yet any difference, under all these cases, of a 
similar intonation, is distinguished by their respective conventional 
language. 

The Wave of the Semitone. The expression of the simple rise 
and the fall of the semitone was noticed above ; but its return or 



464 VOCAL SIGNS OF THOT AND PASION. 

contrary flexure into the wave, is the most common form of this 
expressive interval. There is scarcely a vocal sign which repre- 
sents so many and such various states of mind ; the specific dis- 
tinction of the cases, being made by the descriptive phrase. The 
wave of the semitone differs from the simple interval, in its ex- 
presive dignity derived from its extended quantity, from a repe- 
tition of the simple interval in its returning descent. Sorrow, 
grief, vexation, chagrin, repining, contrition, impatience, peevish- 
ness, compassion, commiseration, condolence, pity, love, fondness, 
supplication, fatigue, and pain, with whatever varieties may exist 
among them, are still, by the difference of the conventional sign, 
all expressed by the wave of the semitone. 

The Wave of the Second. The interval of the second, either 
in a rising or falling direction, being the voice of plain unim- 
pasioned thot, is purely a diatonic sign, and not a means of ex- 
■presion. Still as the downward return of this interval into the 
form of the wave, produces a long quantity, it necesarily adds to 
the second, the peculiar effect of that quantity^ and when duly 
extended, gives to discourse its full character of dignity, and 
grandeur; to the exclusion of the intrusive, and therefore in- 
apropriate use of force, quality, abruptnes, and the wider intervals 
of intonation. 

The Waves of the Third, Fifth and Octave. The forms of the 
wave are so various, that it would far excede the design of this 
Work to enumerate themj and to asort them with the pasions. 
The principles that govern their expresion were unfolded, in the 
twenty-fifth, and six folowing sections. The character of the 
constituent intervals of these waves has great influence in deter- 
mining their respective expresions. The upward vanish of the 
last constituent of the inverted form has the efect of interrogation ; 
and the downward course of the last constituent of the direct, that 
of surprise. If then these two contrary forms of the wave have, 
respectively, in their final constituent, the same character as the 
separate and simple rise and fall of the interval, there might seem 
to be no necesity for their use. Yet suposing the purposes to be 
identical, which however, may not always be the casej the wave 
afords besides, important means for extending the quantity of 
sylables, and consequently for expresing certain states of mind, 



VOCAL SIGNS OF THOT AND PASION. 465 

with deliberate dignity. In the double form, the wave denotes 
sneer, mockery, petulance, contempt, and scorn ; still these last two 
are more conspicuously exhibited by conjoining aspiration with the 
single wave. 

The Radical Stores. From the forcible character of this stres, 
it is employed for increasing the impressivenes of the other vocal 
signs of the pasions, capable of receving it. It is more particu- 
larly aplicable to imutable sylables, yet when we read rapidly, it 
is used even on those of indefinite quantity : but rapid reading 
necesarily weakens its force. Mirth, impatience, anger,. and rage, 
are generaly utered with haste, and therefore take on this stres, in 
emphatic places. It is employed on imperative words ; for it has 
a degree of positivenes, similar to that expresed by the downward 
intervals of intonation. 

The Median Stres. The radical stres is used for abruptly en- 
forcing expresion on short sylables. The median gradualy and 
smoothly swells the voicej and this requires a long quantity, to- 
gether with a deliberate and graceful uterance. I say, together 
with deliberation ; as long quantities do sometimes asume the ab- 
rupt opening of the radical, or the final jerk, of the vanishing 
stres. The states of mind, caling for median forces particularly 
on the dignity of the second, and the plaintivenes of the semitone^ 
are those represented by waves of the various intervals. Of these 
kinds are awe, respect, solemnity, reverence, and suplication, that 
make our division of inter-thotive expresion. This median stres 
may perhaps, be executed on an extended rise or fall of the simple 
fifth and octave; or the wide downward vanish of surprise, and 
wide upward vanish of interrogation, may sometimes be invested 
with this graceful form of force. 

. The Vanishing Stres. This stres, and its expresion have been 
so particularly noticed, in a former section, that it is unnecesary 
here to repeat the detail. Far inferior as it is in dignity, to the 
median, it is sometimes highly expresive of the state represented 
by the semitone and wider intervals^ in grief, surprise, and intero- 
gation. Impresing the extremes of these intervals on the ear, it 
points out their several ranges more distinctly than they are 
marked by the atenuated vanish. It may seem to be a nice dis- 
tinction, but it is nevertheles true and practical, that care must be 



466 VOCAL SIGNS OF THOT AND PASION. 

taken, not to let this stres run into the thoro form; for this, as 
before remarked, rather obscures the interogative expresion. 

Compound Stres. So much was said, on this subject, in the 
thirty-eighth section, that the Reader is refered to it. The com- 
pound, like the median, vanishing, and thoro stres, and the loud 
concrete, cannot be made on short sylables. On prolonged quan- 
tity, it is the sign of energy or violence, in the pasion represented 
by it. 

The Thorough Stres. We refer to the thirty-ninth section, for an 
acount of this sign of rudenes, and vulgarity, when aplied to long 
sylabic quantity, in curent discourse. By the 'hardnes of its 
touch, ' it destroys the graceful outline of the equable concrete ; 
and heavily overlays that delicacy of gradation in the tinted 
vanish, so esential to the refined picture of thot and pasion, in the 
wonderful design and coloring of true and natural speech. 

On the subject of the Loud Concrete, as a sign of expresion, I 
have nothing to add worthy of record, beyond what has been 
previously said. 

The Tremor of the Second and of Wider Intervals. The tremu- 
lous movement of these intervals designates a number of states of 
mind widely diferent from each other. And here again we have 
an instance of a principle widely influential in the expresion of 
the passions ; for these different states, though set within the same 
general-frame of intonation, have their specific divisions marked 
by the conventional terms which describe them. The tremor of 
the second and of wider intervals, is employed for exultation, 
mirth, pride, haughtines, sneer, derision, and contempt; and in 
these expresions, the tittles may move on the simple rise or fall, or 
on the wave. 

The Tremor of the Semitone. The tremulous movement of the 
semitone, on a tonic element, is a form of the crying- voice. Used 
in sylabic intonation, it implies a deeper distres than that of the 
simple semitone ; and expreses in a greater or less degree, the con- 
dition of sufering, grief, tendernes, and suplication; yet widely as 
they may difer from each other, they alike fall, when caried to 
exces, into the tremulous intonation ; their difference being marked 
by the conventional phrase. 

The Aspiration. The pure vocality of the tonics and subtonics, 



VOCAL SIGNS OF THOT AND PASION. 467 

when partly obscured by its union with aspiration, denotes many 
and widely diferent states of mind ; yet with the aid of the con- 
ventional signs, it can clearly expres them all. It acompanies 
the force of vociferation ; is the faint sign of secrecy ; and is joined 
with energetic uterance, when this is not strained into the falsete. 
It also indicates earnestnes, curiosity, surprise, and horor. On a 
former ocasion, contempt, sneer, and scorn, were asigned to the 
wave, particularly in its unequal form. Yet even this does not 
carry the full measure of their expresion, if not conjoined with 
aspiration : and further, the union of aspiration even with simple 
upward and downward wider intervals, may represent these several 
states of mind. 

The GuturaJ Vibration. This is a harsh and grating vocal sign ; 
and denotes all those states of mind classed under ill-humor ; in- 
cluding dissatisfaction, peevishness, and discontent. It likewise 
appears in the strained ferocity of rage, and revenge, and is the 
common sign to children and others of an emphatic rebuke ; and 
has an import of sneer, contempt, and scorn ; all of which, under 
the same natural or vocal sign, are distinguished by the conven- 
tional word or phrase. 

Of the Emphatic Vocule. This is exclusively an indication of 
force, and in the final abrupt elements of particular words is the 
sign of anger and rage, and of vehemence in any pasion. It is 
however of rare ocurence ; and being almost needles in cultivated 
elocution, ought perhaps to be even more rare than it is. 

The Broken- Melody. The Curent melody of Narrative style has 
been represented as a succession of diatonic intonations ; yet em- 
ploying occasionally, for dignified expression, a longer time, a fuler 
quantity, and a wider appropriate interval, both of concrete and 
of discrete pitch ; and intersected by pauses, aplied as often as the 
thdt, or expresion may require. Sometimes, particular states of 
mind overrule the ocasions, and gramatical proprieties of pausing, 
thereby producing notable rests after very short phrases, and even 
after every word, without reference to the conections of syntax. I 
use the term Broken-Melody, to signify the interuptions, sometimes 
produced by the exces of certain pasions. 

The character of this function will be perceved in the physio- 
logical explanation of it. 



468 VOCAL SIGNS OF THOT AND PASION. 

In the section on the mechanism of the voice, two kinds of ex- 
piration were described ; one resembling the act of sighing, whereby 
all the breath is sent forth, in a single impulse of greater or less 
duration ; within which, scarcely more than one or two words can 
be articulated with ease. The other is used in comon speech. 
Within it, we are able to uter whole sentences, by a frugal use of 
the breath, in giving out small portions at a time, to sucesive 
sylables. From the former maner of expiration, seeming to draw- 
off all the contents of the lungs, it may be called the Exhausting- 
breath : and the latter, from its being held-back, to be dealt out in 
such portions as sylables require, may be caled, for want of a beter 
name, the Holding-breath. 

It was said formerlyj an infant begins to speak in the exhaust- 
ing-expiration. It occurs likewise when we are ' out of breath, ' 
from exercise ; and in the extreme debility of disease. Hence in 
these cases, there is often only one sylable heard in a single act of 
expiration. The breath of the tremulous movement of laughter 
and crying, is of this kind. The tremor does here create a slight 
diference ; but if the Reader will for a moment make the experi- 
ment, he will percevej he quickly laughs and cries himself, sq to 
speak, to the bottom of his breathj which is one cause of the 
distres, and even pain felt in excesive laughter ; nor can he, without 
an inhaling pause, continue the tremulous function, for that ex- 
tended time, of expiration, which is so easily efected on the breath 
of comon speech. Young children, in violent crying, sometimes 
so exhaust the lungs, that a considerable pause ocurs between the 
ebb and flow of respiration, much to the alarm of inexperienced 
mothers. 

This exhausting-breath may be produced by a high degree of 
pasionative excitement. Deep distress involuntarily creates it, in 
the form of a sigh. Hence, in the exces of mental sufering, or 
bodily pain, the holding-power is lost, and we speak in the ex- 
hausting-breathj with but one, or at most, two or three words 
within a single act of expiration : and by these repeated intersec- 
tions of the inhaling pauses, the Broken-melody is produced. The 
case will be the same, should an exces of excitement blend the 
tremor of laughter or of crying, with the curent of discourse ; for 
by the exhausting-power of these functions, the melody must be 



VOCAL SIGXS OF TH5T AND PASIOX. 469 

interupted, by the frequent necesity for inspiration. It may be 
asked, why the breath cannot be rapidly recovered, as in the mo- 
mentary rests of speech that are sometimes scarcely perceptible. 
The cause is thisj In the holding-expiration of comon discourse, 
all the breath is not discharged from the lungs ; such a quantity 
only is gradualy spent upon the words, as may be imperceptibly 
and instantly restored. But in speaking with the exhausting-ex- 
piration, there is a discharge of nearly all the breath by an extreme 
contraction of the chest ; and the subsequent act of re-filing the 
lungs requires a degree of expansion and a depth of draft, that 
cannot be imperceptibly performed, and that ocupy the time of the 
remarkable pauses in the* Broken-melody. 

It is not necesary to speak of the phrases of intonation, employed 
in this peculiar melody. They may be of every sj)ecies ; tho, from 
the many interuptions of the curent, the relationships of the 
phrases are not so perceptible nor so important in practical efect, 
as in the more collected sequences of a comon melody. 



I have here endeavored to open the way for a full and more 
precise description of the vocal signs of thot and pasion, and for a 
systematic arangement of them, w x ith the states of mind they 
severaly expres. They have been regarded as individuals, altho 
not one is ever heard alone ; in some instances many are united in 
a single act of expression, and they may be employed in every 
maner of compatible combination. A feeble and a forcible sound 
cannot exist in the same impulse of uterance ; yet either of these 
conditions may be conjoined severaly with all the forms of pitch, 
or vocality, or time. No one interval of pitch can, during the 
same sylabic impulse, be another interval ; but any interval may 
as ocasions require, be simultaneous in execution with any form of 
vocality, time, or force. So in the wave, the intervals may be 
consecutive in all posible ways ; and these ways, either in interval, 
or arangement, may be conjoined with every exercise of the voice, 
not at variance with their definition. 

By the use then of the comparatively limited number of Vocal 
signs here enumerated, together with the asistant means of Con- 



470 VOCAL SIGNS OF THOT AND PASION. 

ventional language, the aparently infinite forms of expresion in 
speech are produced. The preceding detail of these signs, and the 
numerical limitation of the terms of their nomenclature, at once 
aford an observer the means to survey, in the composure of a 
clasifying reflection, the whole extent of this suposed infinity ; and 
thereby, to change a vulgar and distracting wonder at imensity, 
into an inteligent admiration of the obvious union and intermuta- 
ble variety of a few distinguishable constituents. 

The Eeader may now perceve why I have considered the forms 
of expression, in their separate state ; or have regarded only a few 
of their combinations. To give an extended detail of their posible 
groups, would be beyond my design in seting-forth the broad 
Philosophy of speech. Nor is it necesary under a practical view ; 
for having analytically resolved the aparent complexity of speech 
into its asignable constituents, we cannot be at a loss to synthetic- 
ally combine them, when necesary, for every purpose of expresion. 
From a review of our history of the Instinctive signs of thot 
and pasion, and a reference to the limited amount of their modes 
and forms, compared with the unlimited variety of mental condi- 
tions to be expresed, we are struck with the disproportion between 
their respective numbers : and learn, how the deficiencies in the 
instinctive signs are suplied. For in the 

First place. The same vocal sign is used for more than one state 
of mind : as in the numerous class, respectively denoted by the 
semitone, and by the downward intervals. 

Second. Some of those states, genericaly represented by the 
same natural sign, have yet their specific diference marked by the 
artificial sign, or conventional language that describes them. The 
downward octave expreses equaly, comand, and astonishment; 
their diference, under the same intonation, being signified by the 
imperative word, and by the phrase that declares the astonishment. 
Third. A great number of the mental states have no instinctive 
or vocal sign, but depend, for their expresion, altogether on de- 
scriptive language. There is no vocal sign by which a speaker 
can inform us, even if he would, of his avarice, his vanity, or his 
remorse. They must be shown in personal action, or be confesed 
by his verbal declaration. The posible combinations of all the 
modes, forms, degrees, and varieties of the voice, may furnish a 



VOCAL SIGNS OF THOT AND PASION. 471 

sign for every thot and pasion. This estimate and clasification 
having never yet been made, the subject must lay-over, for an age 
of the Physical Philosophy of the mind, as well as of the voice. 

Having in the preceding sections particularly described the 
constituents of speech, which in their various and respective uses, 
denote the mental states of thot and pasion 3 I must ofer a few 
remarks on the subject of that dificulty which a long habit of 
ignorance and eror, in the old school of Elocution, may create in 
acquiring a practical comand over the true and Natural System of 
the voice. When the meaning of our terms for the states of mind, 
and for their coresponding vocal signs is known, there will be no 
great hesitation in recognizing their exemplified distinctions, nor 
in acquiring a facility in executing them; and it will then be 
foundj the use of all the aparently novel modes and forms of the 
voice, in the maner proposed by our Scientific System, which has 
raised the alarm of dificulty, is only a returnj after ages on ages 
of conventional theory and delusionj to the instinctive and truth- 
ful purpose and practice of what must have been the natural 
Archetype of Speech. For the developments of this volume have 
brought me to the conviction, that the system of plain diatonic 
melody, as a ground for the expresive intervals, is the true ordina- 
tion of the speaking voice : and a reference to the universal wisdom 
of Xature, even under the vicious habits of man, shows, that as in 
the benevolence of her final causes, she is prone to good and not 
to evil j so, to give a particular instance, the voice is prone, ' as the 
sparks fly upwards, ' to this ordination for denoting the two leading 
conditions of the mind. Under this view, it would apear, that 
when the design of Nature has not been perverted or overruled, 
we should ocasionaly find examples of greater or less acordance 
with her adjusted system : and I must say, in suport of this infer- 
ence, that altho I have never found a Speaker, conforming in all 
points to our proposed rulesj yet I have met with some instances, 
in which a natural tendency has so far prevailed, that its purposes 
have in a great measure been acomplished ; and others, in which 
it has not been so much confounded or thwarted by corupt exam- 
ple, as to prevent our scientific method, from developing the latent 
resources for proper and elegant speech. I here refer to science, 
as universaly, a true picture of the things and laws of Xature ; 



472 VOCAL SIGNS OF THOT AND PASION. 

and, in our present case, as the means of preventing the influence 
of had education and example, on the instinctive tendencies of the 
voice. 

He who has a knowledge of the constituents of speech, and of 
their powers and uses, is the potential master of the science of 
Elocution ; and he must then derive from his ear, his perception 
of propriety, and his taste, the means of actually applying it with 
success. When this is accomplished, it will be foundj the per- 
formance of Scientific speech, is no more difficult to the Actor, 
than the performance of music is to thousands of little girls when- 
ever they are taught it: and that with a proper notation of the 
vocal signs of the former, one will be as easily read and executed 
at sight as the other. 

I have read somewhere, that the Ancients practiced what they 
called Silent Beading. It is possible, they meant, going over in 
mental perception, the forms of intonation, and of the other modes 
of the voice ; for we knowj this unuttered reading is practicable, 
and may be employed, both on our own peculiar manner, when we 
think of it, and on that of others, when we have the memorial 
power of silently imitating them. This is the process of the 
Mimic ; for his memory of any peculiarity in the vocal sign of 
those he imitates, must silently precede his audible utterance of it. 
The faculty of Silent Reading can however be efectively exercised, 
for pleasure and improvement, only under a clear mental picturing 
of a scientific system of the voice, and of its precise nomenclature. 
By our present analytic knowledge of the states of mind, and of 
the vocal signs of thot and pasion ; and a conventional notation of 
those signs, we may with a perception of our own maner of speak- 
ing, and a memory of the speech of others, be able to silently 
practice the proprieties of elocution, and to corect its erors, by the 
silent use of an instructed intelect. We know that the perceptions 
of the several senses are represented in the memory; that the 
images on the eye and vibrations on the ear, are clearer and more 
readily revived, than on the others ; and that we may memorialy 
think of any peculiarity in the voice. In intonation, the diferent 
intervals; in force, the diferent streses; in time, the diferent 
quantities ; and the various vocalities and pausesj when once per- 
ceved and named, have their respective characters so impresed on 



THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 473 

the memory, that we can thinh-them, in its silent reading. This 
proces of memorial perception with audible, is like its proces with 
visible signs. The Painter has on his memory the ocular image of 
a real, or of an invented subject ; and lays on his tablet the visible 
copy of his memorial lines and colors. The musical Composer 
has in his memory, impresions of all the constituents of song ; and 
silently aranging them by his mind's ear, notes down his melody 
and harmony, for others either silently or audibly to read. There 
is no diference then, between the method in a silent reading of 
music, and that of a silent reading of speech. Indeed, from the 
less complex structure of its melody, the reading of speech should 
be the easier of the two. 

I have near me at this moment, notations from scenes in Hamlet, 
and in Lear ; sent to me by one, who acquired a full knowledge of 
the Scientific system, and its practical aplication, from an unasisted 
study of this Volume; as the volume itself was writen from the 
study of Nature alone. Whether these notations, and my opinion 
of them, are corect or otherwise, I can both silently and audibly 
read them ; and thereby have the means of ilustrating to others, 
the truth and the practical aplication of the subject before us. 



SECTION XLIX. 

Of the Means of Instruction in Elocution, 

I have offered to the Header, a copy of the all-perfect Design 
of Nature, in the construction of Speech. It is necesary, if we 
may still carry on the figure, to furnish at the same time, a i Work- 
ing plan, ? to him who may wish to build up for himself, a delight- 
ful Home of Philosophy and taste, or a popular Temple of Fame, 
in Elocution. 

If the Reader is one of those, who from disapointment in higher 
hopes, have at last resolved to receve their Station in life, under 
31 



474 THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 

the aprobation of ignorance ; and who in their acomplishments are 
careles of rising above the discernment of their unthinking Ad- 
mirers, let him pass by this section. A little will serve his pur- 
poses ; and the instinct of his ambition, without the wise designs 
of human asiduity, will enable him to be easily the file-leader of 
his herd. But if he beleves in that fine induction of the Greeks, 
that 'good things are dificultj' if he sees the sucessful pretender, 
still restles and dissatisfied, in having made captives only of the 
Ignorantj if he desires to work for high and hard masters, and to 
take his ultimate repose by the side of their ever-during aproba- 
tion, he may receve from the folowing pages, some asistance towards 
the acomplishment of his resolution to acquire the art of Reading- 
Well. 

Can Elocution be taught? This question has heretofore been 
asked by ignorance. It shall in another age, or I mistake the 
prevailing power of science, be asked only by folly. 

The skeptics on the subject of the practicability of teaching 
elocution, appear under three classes. To the First belong those, 
who knowing the ways of the voice have never been broadly and 
distinctly traced, beleve they never can be reduced to asignable 
rules. This opinion is grounded on the belief that the expresive 
efects of speech procede from some i ocult quality/ or metaphysi- 
cal working of the l spirit ; ' which however, is neither high nor 
low, loud nor soft ; nor any of the physical and apreciable modes 
of vocal sound. They who carelesly overlook the due revelation, 
which Nature never withholds from the close and fervent observer, 
seem to have that notion of vocal expresion, which poetical school- 
girls have of the smiles, and ( side-long glances' of their interesting 
young admirersj that they are not a palpable efect of the physical 
form of the face, in its state of rest, and in its various motions ; 
but a kind of (materialism, which darts from the eye and breathes 
from the lips ; a ' soul/ as it were in the countenance, which is 
yet, in the words of the song, ' neither shape nor feature/ 

The skepticism of the Second class asumes that acomplishments 
in elocution are the result of certain indescribable powers of 
' genius/ and that the hapy posesor of them is the production of one 
of ' Nature's moments of enthusiasm/ Such sleight of tongue, to 
hide the plain agency of natural causes, is not disdained by many 



THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 475 

who poses powers, suficient to set them far above the stale-grown 
tricks for reputation. He who has the truth and modesty of a 
master in his art, knows that he is distinguished from the thou- 
sands who suround him, not more by a superiority over their 
vulgar notions on the subject of ambition, and the chances of 
success, than by a singlenes in purpose and zeal, and the acumu- 
lative power of a self-gathering docility : nor does he withhold 
instruction, in the fear of rivalship ; for with justified confidence 
in a wel-tried knowledge, he persuades himself, that if any useful 
purpose should make it necesary, he can afterwards, always keep 
pace with a competitor, and then surpas himself, l^-" 

Those who constitute the Third class are too inteligent to beleve 
in this mystical doctrine of the ' Inspiration of genius ; ' yet they 
hold, that the art of reading- well can be taught only by imitation. 
Elocution may unfortunately too often have satisfied its faith with 
the creed of Imitation ; and thereupon, set-up its diferent Idols, 
for public worship. But when has the world, on a single subject 
of inquiry, ever found, in that faith or fiction which sees evidence 
in what is not to be seen alike by all, any other result than that 
of sophistical labor, without product, and illiberal quarels, with- 
out end. Hence the vain conceit of forming a school of Imitative' 
Elocution : for the several partizans of diferent favorites will 
never agree to raise any one individual, to exemplary superiority. 
An example to be useful and permanent in art, must be set-up 
with the consent of all : and that consent can be drawn only from 
a comon and acessible source of instruction and knowledge, not 
from individual or party admiration. It was therefore, under 
ignorance of there being a comon source of knowledge in the few 
and clasified constituents of speech, that such a wavering notion 
as Imitation became the deceptive guide of Elocution, in absence 
of that yet ^leading Cynosure to every eye alikej the stedfast 
unity of Principles in the Art. It is the design of this esay, to 
furnish from Nature, and not from variable examples of human 
authority, those describable truths, on which all may begin their 
agreement ; and by extending this consent, may at last raise an 
observative and universal school of Elocution. 

I must here notice the objection, often made to teaching Elocu- 
tion by systematic rulesj that it will necesarily produce a formal, 



476 THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 

and afected, or as it is caled without foundation, a theatric style of 
speech. This charge is made either by those who do not, in all 
cases, know the meaning and power of instructive principles, which 
are only the exponents of a clasified knowledge in the arts; or by 
those who have had the experience of some very loose and narow 
rules for their own narow and unsucesful schemes.* 

* An especial form, and the fulest force of this objection has lately been 
embodied into a so-caled system of Elocution,, carelesly woven out of comon 
learning, and fair-faced 'reasonings,' first published under the Article, 
Rhetoric, in the Encyclopedia Metropolitana ; and subsequently under the 
name of a profound, as all obscure writers are thot to be, and acomplished 
Archbishop; thus ading an authority of high oficial and personal character, 
to the outspread influence, and confirmatory suport of a sworn brotherhood 
of British Contributors, of the foremost reputed inteligence, learning, taste, 
and Scientific Rank, in the United Kingdom. 

In one of our prefaces, we recorded the magisterial decision of the Presi- 
dent of the American Philosophical Society, that any analysis of the ex- 
presion of the human voice is imposible. And I have now to quote from a 
high dignitary of the Church, the equaly dogmatic declaration, that the em- 
ployment of a sucesful analysis, far from leading to a proper, energetic, and 
elegant use of the voice, would entirely pervert and corupt it. In the .Fourth 
Part of his Rhetoric, the first chapter, and fourth section, he says : ' But there 
is one principle running thru all their precepts,' (the precepts of those who 
would teach elocution by precept,) ' which being, acording to my views, radicaly 
eroneous, must, if those views be corect, vitiate every system founded upon 
it. The principle I mean is, that in order to acquire the best style of De- 
livery, it is requisite to study analyticaly the emphases, tones, pauses, degrees 
of loudnes, which give the proper efect to each passage that is well delivered ; 
to frame rules founded on the observation of these ; and then, in practice, 
deliberately and carefuly to conform the uterance to these rules, so as to form 
a complete artificial system of Elocution.' ( Whether the writer had ever seen 
the ' Philosophy of the Human Voice,' does not apear ; and the case is the 
stronger if he had not$ for, had he attentively read it thru, the objection could 
not have been more directly pointed at its analysis and rules. ) 

1 That such a plan not only directs us into a circuitous and difficult path, 
towards an object which may be reached by a shorter and straighter, but also, 
in most instances, completely fails of that very object, and even produces, 
often er than not, efects the very reverse of what it designed, is a doctrine for 
which it will be necesary to ofer some reasons.' 

Now, the good Prelate's 'reasons' are employed, on the one hand, against 
an analytic method^ which, from not comprehending, as it seems, the pur- 
pose of resolving the voice into its constituents, he thinks would produce an 
Artificial maner of speech, and on the other, in favor of his notion of what 
he calls the Natural manner; not drawn, as it should be, from the ordination 
of God and Nature, but founded on the folowing unfounded remark, by Adam 



THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 477 

This objection is grounded on some method, suposed to be free 
from this analytic formality, and 'preceptive afectationj and caled, the 
' Natural Manner. 1 But this maner having no describable standard 
of its own truth, propriety and taste, is vaguely refered to an 
' ocult' animal instinct, under that boastful term of human vanity, 
Prerogative ' Genius : ' which, by its untrained and wayward igno- 
rance, would, with an impudent claim to an inborn privilege, reject 
the wise and prevailing eforts of educated art. Yet instinct even 
when nominaly dignified into ' Genius/ seems to be nothing more 
than the result of an organization prepared by nature to receve 
the impresion of directive causes, which thereupon act necesarily, 
to excite the organic power, limited as it may be, and to exercise it 
to its end. As this organization of instinct begins to work itself 
into mind, the knowledge thereby acquired^ for we perceve mind, 
only thru knowledgej creates by slow degrees, another state, or 
another more complicated and efective mental organization, so to 
speak ; on which the objects or facts of an art act more broadly 
as directive causes, to excite the no less necesary and unering pur- 
poses, and practical ends of science. The practical ends of Elocu- 
tion, as an elegant art, are, to denote our thots, and pasions, with 
truth, propriety, and taste, and consequently without the eror 
and deformity of awkwardnes, or afectation. When therefore, by 

Smithy towards the close of his reflections on 'the Imitative Arts,' already 
refered-to at the end of our nineteenth section. ' Tho in speaking, a person 
may show a very agreeable tone of voice, yet if he seems to intend to show itj 
if he apears to listen to the sound of his own voice, and as it were to tune it 
into a pleasing modulation, he never fails to ofend, as guilty of a most disagree- 
able afectation.' 

To show the general bearing of this ' reasoning,' we here make an analogical 
aplication of Adam Smith's and the Prelate's thot to another related esthetic 
art. Tho a Painter might please us in executing a well invented subject of 
a picture^ yet if he seems to intend to show his skill, or to look at his own 
composition, and as it were, to aprove of the principles of his art, in their 
acomplishment of his design, his coloring, and shaded light, thereby to bring 
his purpose to a finished efectj he never fails to ofend, as guilty of a most 
disagreeable afectation. 

It has been one of the objects of our Work to answer ' reasoning ' by fact : 
and tho we here notice the Prelate's adopted, and unsifted faith and notions, 
the serious argument against them, which we do not require, others will here- 
after draw, for their satisfaction, from the demonstrative answer of Observa- 
tion and Time. 



478 THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 

analytic knowledge of the constituents of an artj principles, or 
clasifications of its facts, for some efective purpose are framed, 
these principles become, as it were, the scientific instinct of the new 
and more complicated organization of the mind, in its state of 
acquired knowledge : just as in its own way, the original and more 
simple organization of nature, exercises its limited and merely 
animal instinct. And as this instinct, or call it ' genius, ? of the 
Old Elocution produces what the objectors to the use of Analytic 
Rules, asume to be the propriety and grace of its ( Natural Manner;' 
so the regeneration of the mind, as we describe it, to a new life of 
acumulated knowledge, has necesarily a tendency, in its scientific 
instinct, towards the natural maner of a more comprehensive, 
refined, and efective Elocution. It is then the limited animal 
instinct of the Old School, and its ignorance of the wide resources 
of the scientific instinct of the New with its analytic, more exact, 
and exalted natural manerj that does realy produce in itself the 
formality, and the theatric afectation, which it deprecates and 
blindly charges on a beter system. For it must be borne in mind, 
that the important vocal Mode of Intonation, outlawed as it is 
from all inquiry, has with its power of expresion, been heretofore 
employed, whether by those who adopt, or who reject the rules j for 
there is little diference in the event of their failuresj only with the 
intonative, and limited resources of the brute.* 

It has been the oversight and misfortune of the Old school of 
Imitation, that even with the striking analogies of Rhetoric, 

* This charge of a Theatric maner on any pompous or afected speaker, is 
one of the inumerable instances of the inconsistent and mudled human mind. 
The world of Taste goes to the Theater to hear the purest style of Elocution, 
and thinks it so, or it would not continue its aprobation. Dignitaries of the 
Church and their plebean folowers, who do not go to this Wicked Place, would 
depreciate the character of an elegant amusement they dare not, with worldly 
motives, enjoys and therefore condemn it. From some of their metaphysical 
notions, or from Shakspeare's caricature of a particular 'robustious fellow 
tearing a pasion to ragsj ' they speak of any ostentatious maner, whether in 
school-boys, or the Pulpit, as theatric. And acording to the objector in 
the present casej instruction on the principles of vocal Time and Intonation 
must necesarily produce this Theatric afectation. I cannot, by the scale of 
our analysis, positively decide on the Archbishop's exemplification of his 
1 reasoning and argument,' from never having had the oportunity of hearing 
him read. 



THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 479 

Music, Painting and the Landscape, severaly founded on the re- 
lations of these Arts, to capacities and principles in the human 
mindj they never perceved, tho they obscurely used without per- 
ceving, the equaly elegant, and for human purposes, the more 
esential relations of the modes and forms of the voice, to the 
mental states of thot and pasion ; and therefore remained deaf to 
the cries of sister-principles of propriety and taste, craving to 
be admited into the Esthetic family, as the ISTew-born art of 
Elocution. 

From what is here said, we may ofer three remarks on this ob- 
jection to the use of Rules in the Art of Reading. First. An 
atempt to teach by rules, under a partial knowledge of the con- 
stituents of speech, could never in the old school, except by 
chance, have been elegantly right; and must have been often for- 
maly and afectedly wrong. Second. It was from the want of the 
Universal Rules of Speech, drawn from a full analysis of its con- 
stituents, that led the old school, to conclude^ there could be none. 
And it was this want, that led its folowers, in groping after an in- 
definable excelence, whether natural or artificial, to fall into their 
inherent constraint and afectation ; the real causes of which they 
had not a suficient light of analysis and rule, to enable them to 
avoid. Third. The efect of our proposed system of analysis and 
principles for teaching the art of reading, and for insuring its 
freedom from formality and afectation, will be the same in every 
other art, whether useful or esthetic. In all, it is necesary to know 
what is to be done, and what means are to be thotfuly employed, 
to do it well ; to practice its rules, at first perhaps awkwardly, in 
closely and slowly thinking of their aplications and by this frequent 
repetition, to enable the act, so far to wean itself from the di- 
rective purpose, as to become an eficacioas habit; and finaly, to 
use a full knowledge of the art, with almost the unperceved 
power of what we have metaphoricaly caled a scientific instinct. 
The purely acquired human art of Swiming, unasisted by in- 
stinct, tho learned with tedious efortj directed by earnest thotj 
and only mastered at last by careful atention to every imitative 
and embarasing motion^ is afterwards, from that atention fading 
into habit, sucesfully employed in dangerj with the thot only of 
the shore to be reached, and the life to be saved : and in like nianer, 



480 THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 

the purity, propriety, energy and elegance of rhetorical composi- 
tionj which slowly perceved, and only thoroly learned, by close 
atention to their particulars and to the rules that should govern 
them, as our unfriendly Prelate must have known by self-expe- 
riencej are afterwards, without a perception of those particulars, 
aplied in public oratory to the broad purposes of a well instructed 
and sucesful eloquence. 

I have often been led to consider the oposite characters of 
propriety in the style of Composition, and of impropriety in the 
Vocal habits of speakers. Our Western World is overrun by 
itinerant lecturers, and ubiquitous speech-makers of every sort; 
the same in class with the Older Sophistsj but without their care- 
ful Rhetoric, and the candid warning of their Name : yet however 
humble their subject-mater and their taste, the most insignificant 
and iliterate so to call them, are often as conected in their words 
and sentences as the orator of higher power and scholarship ; 
while in their respective intonations, and other modes of the voice, 
they are sometimes both-alike, often no more than negatively 
agreeable and corect, and generaly, in various degrees indistinct, 
afected, monotonous, outrageous, or false, to a cultivated ear. 

Two causes at least may be asigned for this diference. Onej 
that the crowd of the world is too often satisfied with a careles 
maner in its affairs ; and as the greater part of what is caled 
Oratory, compared with the permanent words and works of Wis- 
dom, relates only to the events and opinions of the dayj it is 
looked upon as unecesary to waste atention on the voice ; especialy 
under the belief, that ^Nature spontaneously directs what is here 
required. This is exemplified by the many instances of deformed 
elocution, among the renowned dialectic speakers of the Senate, 
the Pulpit, and the Bar ; with whom the vocal part of education, 
being considered as not esential, the Orator in his ambitious con- 
tentions, and delusions, thinks or finds, he does not need its asist- 
ance. Hence with a Slavery-agitator in the American Congress, 
and an Abolition-preacher about the streets, there is equaly an 
ignorant disregard to the proper, and certainly to the elegant uses 
of the voice. 

The other cause shows why speakers are equaly corect, or nearly 
so, in the gramatical character of their discourse. For having by 



THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 481 

truth or sophistry, to convince or to persuade their hearers, it 
must be with a conected order of discourse, however defective or 
false the intonation. To render their language comprehensible, 
they are obliged in childhood to learn the right perceptions of 
words ; afterwards to acquire by book or imitation the proprieties of 
gramar, with the meaning of phrases and punctuation ; and finaly 
to folow examples of a proper arangement of words and sentences. 
In this case the speaker is compeled to acknowledge his ignorance 
and his obligation to learn. And as neither the Speaker nor the 
Audience perceve a diference between the right and the wrong in 
the voicej ignorance with both being their defense against knowl- 
edgej neither thinks it necesary to learn, and the speaker, like our 
Learned Prelate, regards the power of properly using his voice as 
a natural gift, which Avould be forfeited by the interference of 
systematic instruction. 

AVe can here perceve the causes why respectively, Parliamentary 
Burkesj and itinerant Fanatics with other Demagogues, folow the 
same rules of gramar and composition in their style ; and folow 
no rule at all, in the corupted instinct of their intonation. 

This is our view of some of the objections, made against an 
attempt to teach the Esthetic uses of the voice, by systematic and 
comunicable principles. We will not confer importance on them 
by special refutation. In so doing, we should only record some 
vain opinions of this age, which a future one need not know. At 
the present time, let us not be concerned if the history of the voice 
contained in this esay, and the Plan of instruction founded upon 
it, should be i either stumbling-block or foolishnes/ to the groping 
school of mystagogues and imitators.* 

* In adition to the imposibility of influencing those, who in the present 
age pass for Philosophers and Thinking men, and who asert that Elocution 
cannot be tat by analysis and rule ; it is no less hopeles to persuade those 
to learn, who, not quite so impenetrable as the former, only maintain j it would 
give no return for the trouble. "Why should we labor, they ask, to acquire an 
art which when needed will be no more than the spontaneous result of thot 
and pasion ; or why improve that which some visionary and interested re- 
former tells us, is not well done already ? 

This question is so broadly answered by the record of facts in this volume, 
that I shall here merely ilustrate its eroneous suposition, by comparing our 
humble subject of Elocution with the transcending subject of G-overnment : 



482 THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 

The preceding history furnishes materials, for raising elocution 
to the condition of a Regular Art, if not of a Science ; and we 
must look to the comparisons, and conclusions of taste, for precepts 

the principles of which, equaly with those of speech, every one thinks he 
comprehends by intuition. 

Unlike as these subjects may seem when thus presented together, they have 
thro ages, each in its own misguided eforts, shown the same proportion of 
grave pretensions, of unfounded or ill-aplied facts, of erudite discusions, of 
indefinite precept, of contradictory practice, and of deplorable failure in its 
boasted promises. Each has had a thousand diferent and contending schools ; 
more than thousands of examples of individual authority; with schools, and 
authorities variously overthrowing one another, and neither able to furnish a 
general principle, or instance, for universal aprobation : no Speaker, whether 
by his ' Genius ' or his 'Imitation ' able to answer the acurate demands of the 
mind and ear : no sovereign Despot or Democratic sovereign, able to satisfy 
the wishes and the wants of the subject or the citizen ; and each from a simi- 
lar cause. One has no uniform rule of expresion, drawn from nature, for di- 
recting his speech ; the other no uniform or consistent rule of Law, Morality, 
or Religion, to control his conduct. The speaker, ignorant of what is proper 
or elegant in the voice, falls into his ' natural manner,' and disputes himself 
into enmity with the ' natural manner ' of another ; the Governed, not finding 
what is wise and just, falls into the selfishnes of his pasions, and brings his 
diference with others to a civil war. The Statesman narows-down the great 
problem, on the causes and cure of the anti-social vices of pride, vanity, ava- 
rice, ignorance and ambition, to the futile question of the comparative wisdom 
and the rights of the Many, and of the Few : just as the Elocutionist has nar- 
owed the great purpose of the vocal means in nature, by a paltry clasification 
of the disciples of the Art, into those of ' Genius ' and ' Imitation.' 

But, in artful transformation, the Few in government thru pride and wealth, 
asume the power of the Many : and the Many, by falsehood and fraud, asume 
the cuning of the Few. The many in government, are then made to beleve, 
that man is incapable of any other perception, than that of being a slave to 
the Prime management of a Royal Minister, or to the Prime Knavery of a 
self-serving Demagogue. The Many in Elocution are made to beleve, they 
can speak-well, only by the : Inspiration of Identity,' or the ' natural maner ' 
of the School. And bad readers, under the restrictive authority of the Old 
Elocution ; and miserable suferers, under make shift Monarchies and Repub- 
lics, are alike led to comfort themselves, respectively in their bad tasto, and 
unhapines, by these similar questions of pasive submision: "Why should we 
raise the ire of the Old School, with trying to read by the new analysis ? and 
why should we disturb a Government by trying to reform it? when the Mas- 
ters of vocal instruction and Imperial and Mass-meeting legislators, themselves 
so incorigible, cannot admit, that the art of Speech in one case, and of human 
hapiness in the other, is not as perfect under the present order of things, as 
the purposes of knowledge and taste, and the rights of man can ever posibly 
require ? * 



THE MEANS OF INSTKUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 483 

to direct the use of these materials. Our history will not only 
aforcl the means for reducing the arbitrary fashion of the voice, 
to something like that method and rule, to which the other fine 
arts have been already brought, among their educated and reflect- 
ing votaries j but it opens a new field on the subject of instruc- 
tion. All arts when reduced to their elements, have been recom- 
posed into systematic order for teaching by the Primary School 
of those elements ; and it now becomes us to try what time may 
be saved, what old views may be cleared from obscurity, and what 
wider knowledge obtained, by a rudimental plan in describing the 
several modes of the voice, conveying the mental states of thot 
and pasion. 

Language was long ago resolved into its alphabetic elements, 
and its Parts of speech. Wherever that analysis is known, the 
art of gramar is with the best suces, conducted upon this method. 
If then the thotive and expresive uses of the voice should be tat 
by a similar analysis, the advantage would be no less, than from 
the alphabetic and gramatical resolution. In this way we teach 
a child its leters and their union into words : surely then, there is 
no cause why a clear perception of the varieties of stres, of time, 
and of intonation, and the power of knowingly employing them 
in curent uterance, should not be acquired in a similar elementary 
maner. 

/ The art of reading-well consists in having all the constituents 
of speech, both alphabetic and expresive, under complete comand ; 
to be by Nature's directive instinct, properly aplied, for the im- 
presive and elegant representation of every state of the mind. I 
shall not however in this section, consider the modes of the voice 
as expresive of thot or pasion : but shall describe the means for 
providing the manageable material of speech, whenever the pur- 
poses of the mind may require its use. y^ 

If I were a teacher of elocution, I would frame a didactic sys- 
tem of elementary exercises, similar to that which taut me, what- 
ever the well-read critic may find to be new, in this volume ; and 
would asign my pupil a task under the following heads : 

Of Practice on the Alphabetic Elements. Notwithstanding we 
are all taut the alphabet, we are not taut the true elements of 
speech : I would therefore require the pupil, to exercise his voice 



484 THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 

on the elements, as they are sounded in a strict analysis of words. 
In the present school-system of the alphabet, many vowels have 
no peculiar symbol, and nearly all the consonants when separately 
pronounced, are heard as sylables, not as elements. If b and h 
and I, be sounded as respectively heard in 6-ay, and &-ing, and 
Z-ovej or, if we pause after these several initial sounds have es- 
caped the organs, we have the real element, instead of the com- 
pounds be, hay, and ell, as they are universaly taut : and the like 
is true of all the consonants. 

Let the first lesson consist of a separate, an exact, and a re- 
peated pronunciation of each of the thirty-five elements, thereby 
to insure a true and easy execution of their unmingled sounds : 
the pupil being careful to pronounce, not the alphabetic sylable 
of the school, but the pure and indivisible vocal element ; however 
unusual and uncouth that sound may in some cases, be to his ear. 
It may be askedj if a careful pronunciation of words, in which 
these elements, combined with others, must still be heard, would 
not give the necesary exactnes and facility ? I beleve it would 
not. When the elements are pronounced singly, they may receve 
an undivided energy of the organic efort, and therewith a clear nes 
of sound, and a definite outline, that make a fine preparative for 
distinct and forcible pronunciation in the compounds of speech. 
And perhaps no one who has neglected this elementary practice, 
is able to efect the vocality of b, d, and g, with the force, fulnes, 
and duration, required on ocasions, for the higher powers and 
graces of elocution. The eficacy of this separate practice, in 
giving a comand over the alphabetic sounds, is most remarkable 
in the r. 

The element r is a modification of the vocality of the subtonics, 
and denotes two diferent articulations. One is made by a quiet 
aplication of the tongue to the roof of the mouth ; the other by 
its quick percusion against that part. The r produced by the 
first organic position, difers very little from the short tonic e-rr, 
and may be caled the Quiet r. That made by percusion, the 
Percussive r. The later has a distinctnes of character and a body 
of sound, not posesed by the formerj and if the metaphor can be 
apreciated, the parts concerned in its formation seem to have a 
firmer grasp of the breath. Yet this Percusive r,» even with its 



THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 485 

vigor, and satisfactory fulnes, will be agreeable only when it con- 
sists of one, or at most, two or three strokes and rebounds of the 
tongue : for should it be a continued vibration, the efect will be 
ofensively harsh, if not expresly designed for a ruf or energetic 
uterance ; but even this should be avoided. The perfect r, for 
the purposes of distinct and impresive speech, shud consist of a 
single slap and retraction : and it can be made in this maner, by 
diligent practice, on the solitary element. 

Besides the dificulty of acquiring strength and acuracy in this 
separate pronunciation^ certain combinations of the r, with other 
elements can be efected in an agreeable maner, only by asiduity. 
A subtonic or atonic that employs the tongue in one position, will 
not readily unite with an element, requiring a quick remove of the 
tongue to another part of the mouthj even when the element is 
produced, as in the quiet r, by a simple presure of the tongue ; 
but the dificulty of transition is much increased, by the velocity 
necesary for the percusive r. Let us for instance, take the syla- 
bic step from d to r, in the word dread. As the formation of d 
requires the tip of the tongue to be aplied to the uper fore-teethj 
should r be taken quietly, the confluence of these elements may be 
easily made, by retracting the tongue to the contiguous place for 
forming the r. When however we roughen the word by the per- 
cussive r, the tongue is brought down from the teeth, towards its 
bed, in a kind of drawing-off, for making thereby, a suden im- 
pulse against the roof of the mouth ; and it calls for both efort 
and skill, to acomplish these sucesive movements with that quick- 
nes, which sylabic coalescence requires. 

There is also considerable dificulty in uniting the percusive r 
with some of the tonics ; and the cause is analogous to that above 
described. 

When the percusive r is set before the tonics, the coalescence is 
easy, as in rude, reed: but it is not so when it foloivs certain of 
these elements. If the tonics are of long quantity, there is in 
some cases, only the slightest dificulty ; as in glare, war, far, peer, 
mire, our, your. Should the short-tonics e-rr, e-nd and i-n, and 
most of the other tonics when pronounced short, precede the per- 
cusive r, there will be the unpleasant efort of a hiatus, together 
with that peculiar efect of a union of tonic and aspiration, which 



486 THE MEANS OF INSTKUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 

forms one of the characteristics of speech in the natives of Ireland. 
This will be perceved, upon pronouncing the words, interpreter, 
world, iritate, intercourse. The cause of the hiatus and of this 
inevitable Irishism apears in the folowing explanation. 

The tonic sound s, tho in greater part laryngeal, are in some cases 
modified by the agency of the tongue and lips. The tongue in 
speech is employed in varying positions, from the deepest depres- 
sion in its bed, till nearly in contact with the roof of the mouth. 
Its place in the uterance of a- we is the lowest ; and the highest in 
ee-l, e-nd and i-n. If these short tonics precede the percusive r, 
there is a hiatus, from a dificulty in making the percusion ; and 
this changes the tonic into a semi-aspiration. When a-we precedes 
r, the tongue being in its bed is in the proper position for making 
the impulse, and the combination of this a-we with the r, is easy, 
and is free from aspiration, as in aurelia and reward. 

In the case then, of the short tonics preceding the percusive r, 
it is necesary to bring down the tongue from its short-tonic posi- 
tion at the roof of the mouth, to its bedj to give it starting- way, 
so to speak, for gaining its percusive velocity. The aim to efect 
this in the quickest time, produces the hiatus of pronunciation. 
Yet with every endeavor, there is still a perceptible interval be- 
tween the change in the position of the tongue, from its short- 
tonic place down to its bed, and subsequently up to the roof of the 
mouth, the place of the percusive r. And as there is no cesation 
of vocality during the time of the change, the depresion of the 
tongue, or some other cause, gives that vocality its aspirated char- 
acter. This mingling of aspiration with the short tonic, and the 
percusive r, produces the disagreeable efect in the uterance of these 
conjoined elements ; nor can it be altogether avoided, except by 
using the quiet r. 

The dificulty of executing the r, under the circumstances above- 
mentioned, will I fear, be insurmountable to those who are not 
persuadedj the perfection of their acomplishments must at last be 
due to their own habits, their knowledge, and their industry. 
Those who know how necesarily a fruitful desire of improvement 
is the result of wise docility of mind and heartfelt resolution, have 
only to learn that it is within the capabilities of time and exertion. 
How long it may take to overcome the dificulties here aluded to, 



THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 487 

must depend on instinctive facility of uterance : nor need it be 
told to those who deserve instruction, and will have succes. To 
such persons, it is enuf that it may be done. 

An exact pronunciation of the elements according to the rule of 
the day, is a mater of importance, not with reference alone to the 
law of fashion. It has a claim of greater dignity. 

When states of mind are to be comunicated with precision and 
force, it should be by well-knoAvn words, not peculiar in sound, 
nor striking by length, nor by dificult uterance. There should be 
no remarkable contrast between them ; no atractive and disturbing 
similarity ; nor anything in the language, to alure atention from 
the thot conveyed by it. A writer, who frequently employs un- 
comon words, except in technical instruction, never has vividnes 
or strength, or may I say transparency of style. For the acom- 
plishment of these objects, sounds should slip efectively into the 
mind, almost without the notice of the ear ; and the meaning of 
an Author not conveyed slowly under obscurity but at once, thro 
the clearest light of simplicity and truth. What is said, on the 
distractions produced by novelty and peculiarity of words, aplies 
equaly to the pronunciation of alphabetic elements ; as the least 
deviation from the asumed standard, converts the listener into a 
critic : and it is perhaps speaking within bounds to say, that for 
every miscaled element in discourse, ten suceding words, if not 
more, are lost to the observant and reflective part of an audience. 
I have therefore recomended a long-continued practice on the 
separate elementsj for acquiring that comand over them, which 
not only contributes to the elegance of speech, but at the same 
time, may help to remove all obscurity from the vocal picture of 
thot and pasion. 

Of Practice on the Time of Elements. Enough has been said 
in former pages, on the necesity of a full comand over the time of 
uterancej for efecting the important pui^oses of elocution. 

When the pupil has acquired a true pronunciation of the ele- 
ments, he should not, acording to the usage of the primer, pass at 
once to combine them into words. They are employed in speech 
under various degrees of duration ; and diligent practice on these 
degrees will create a habit of skilful management, not so well nor 
so easily acquired by exercise on the comon curent of discourse. 



488 THE MEANS OF INSTPwUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 

Let the pupil then consider the alphabetic elements as a kind of 
Time-table, on which he is to learn all their varieties "of quantity. 
The power of giving well measured length to sylables is so rare 
among speakers, that I have been induced to draw especial aten- 
tion to this elementary method of instruction. 

Altho a prolongation of the atonies is of little consequence^ let 
the pupil reiterate his practice on the tonics and sub tonics, until 
he finds himself posesed of such a comand over them, that he may 
at will, give the quantity to their sylabic combinations. 

The elements b, d, and g, admiting of only a slight variation of 
quantity, on the prolongation of their feeble vocalityj a strenuous 
practice on their individual sounds is necesary to render them 
aplicable to the purposes of oratorical time. 

When r is to be prolonged, and the rapid iteration would be 
impropriate, the quiet form of the element should be employed ; 
the percusive r, made by a single stroke and rebound of the 
tongue, being necesarily short. 

The element s, when alone and prolonged, is a sign of con- 
tempt. In sylabic combination it is ofensive if much extended 
in quantity; under its shortest time, it still performs its part 
in speech, and loses much of the character of the hiss. Let the 
pupil therefore practice the shortest quantity on this element, 
by abruptly terminating the breath, or by separating the teeth 
at the moment its sound is heard ; for this at once cuts it short. 
Here is not the place to remark how carefuly a repetition of 
this element in suceding words, particularly if emphatic, is to be 
avoided. 

Of Practice on the Vanishing Movement This subject should 
perhaps, have been considered under the last head ; for an atempt 
to prolong the elements without reference to the equable concrete 
of speech, is very apt to produce the note of song. The diference 
between these two forms of intonation even on a single tonic, will 
be perceptible to an experimental ear, by keeping in mind at the 
moment of trial, the well known and peculiar efect both of speech 
and of song. The pupil then, without confusing his ear by other 
particulars, should exercise his voice on the simple form of the 
radical and vanish, on all extendible elements. An unering power 
in executing this function, however long the quantity may be, will 



THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 489 

always insure to speech, an entire exemption from the protracted 
radical. 

In this elementary intonation of the equable concrete, atention 
should be paid to the structure of the vanish. The pupil must 
therefore endeavor to give it that delicate expiration which may 
render the point of its limit almost imperceptible : for this is its 
proper form, except some purpose of expresion should require a 
more obvious demarkation. We often lean the ear in delight, 
over this smooth breathing of sound into silence, by singers; and 
the master in elocution shall hereafter know, that one of those 
* graces' which he could never name, and even thot l beyond the 
reach of artj' but which Art conjoined with Science, is now ready 
to teach himj consists in this atenuation and close of the sylabic 
impulse, here recomended as a lesson for the school-boy. 

Of Practice on Force. It is scarcely necessary to say how 
loudnes of voice, or the forte, is to be acquired. It is not esential 
to our discipline, that the elements should be utered separately 
with regard to force. When the other constituents of expresive 
speech are brought under comand, exercise on this mode may be 
efected during the curent of discourse. Still the ends of instruc- 
tion would be somewhat easier atained by the elementary proces 
in this particular. Few persons perceve the influence that loud 
speaking or vociferation has on vocality. We have already 
learnedj it is one of the means for acquiring the orotund. It 
takes the voice aparently, from its meager mincing about the lips, 
and transfers it, at least in semblance, to the back of the mouth, 
or to the throat. It imparts a grave fulnes to its character ; and 
by creating a strength of organ, gives confidence to the speaker in 
his more forcible eforts ; and an unhesitating facility in all the 
moderate exertions of speech. 

Of Practice on Stres. Altho the elementary exercise on force as 
a general rule, may not be necesary, I must urge its importance, 
in particular sylabic stres. There is a nicety in this mater, that 
will be definitely recognized, and consequently can become familiar, 
only after the deliberate practice and unembarassed observation, 
aforded by trials on the separate elements. 

It was said formerly, that radical stres is made with emphatic 
strength only on the tonics ; still, an atempt to aply it to the sub- 
32 



490 THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 

tonics is not to be entirely neglected. The full power of radical 
abruptnes in the tonics is efected, by opening the elements into 
uterance, with a sort of coughing explosion. The pupil cannot be 
too strongly urged to a careful practice, on this subject 3 that he 
may thereby acquire the habit of giving abruptnes, instantly and 
with moderated force. Here its peculiar character as a Mode of 
the voice is aparent, and its clasification defensible j in making a 
satisfactory impulse on the ear, without the hamering strokes of 
an uncultivated pronunciation. For this fault of reading lies not 
only in the repetition or curent of a sharp and loud radical stres 
on every word, but that. stres is sometimes caried into the concrete, 
if not thro it, on acented sylables of moderate quantity. 

The use of the median stres or swell, requires no particular 
direction. It is generaly employed on the wave, and its practice 
may therefore be conected with exercise on pitch. 

The vanishing stres may be practiced, by asuming in speech 
something like the efort of hicup for the wider intervals ; and of 
sobbing, for the minor third and semitone. We do not recomend 
practice on the minor third, with reference to its alowable use in 
speech; but to render it so familiar to the ear, that it may be 
avoided as a fault. Elementary exercise, on Compound stres, and 
the Loud Concrete, will give facility in the comand of these forms 
of Force. Practice on Thoro stres, with a strict comparison of its 
efect, on long quantity, with the efect of the equable concrete, is 
here recomended, that the pupil may by his own knowledge, per- 
ception of propriety, and taste, rather than by any authority of 
mine, be guarded against this vocal sign of phlegmatic rudeness. 

Of Practice on Pitch. The several scales used in speech were 
described in the first section. The order of proximate intervals in 
the diatonic, and the skip of its wider transitions, must be learned 
from an instrument, or the voice. With a few days' atention to the 
various rising and faling movements, on the keys of a piano-forte, 
or in the voice of a master, a pupil who has the least musical 
ear, will be able to. execute the same sucesions in his voice, and to 
recognize the concrete pitch, and change of radical, on elemental 
and sylabic uterance. 

After this first lesson, let every interval of pitch, both by con- 
crete movement and by radical change, be practiced on every tonic 



THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 491 

and subtonic element. The semitone is easily recognized in a 
plaintive intonation : and when exercised on all the elements will 
readily become obedient to the states of mind requiring its ex- 
presion. 

The efect of the simple and uncolored interval of the second 
must be negatively described by sayingj it is not the semitone, 
with its plaintive character; nor the rising third, or fifth, or 
octave, also well known as the sign of interogation ; nor the down- 
ward movements of positive declaration and comand; nor the 
wave, with its admiration, surprise, mockery and sneer. If then, 
in sylabic uterance, none of these efects are produced, it may be 
concluded^ the voice is in the simple second of the diatonic melody. 
By practice on this interval, on all the tonics and subtonics, the 
pupil will atain a comand over the constituent of this plain into- 
nation; nor will he be in danger of destroying its apropriate char- 
acter by the whine of the semitone, the sharp inquisitivenes of the 
fifth or octave, or with the more ofensive afectation of the wider 
forms of the wave. 

The pupil will be able to recognize a downward interval, by 
familiarizing his ear to the efect of the last constituent of the 
triad of the cadence. This will teach him the character of the 
faling second ; and by studiously repeating the tonic and subtonic 
elements in this movement, he will have nearly as clear a percep- 
tion of the peculiarity of the interval, as of the sounds of the ele- 
ments themselves. When prepared with this downward vanish, 
he may contrast it with the rising second, and thereby become 
familiar with the audible character of each. Upon knowing the 
second, the wider faling intervals will be perceved by continuing 
the downward progress, till the intonation asumes the expresion of 
comand; the extent of the downward movement by a third, or 
fifth, or octave, being proportional to the less or greater degree of 
that expresion. Let these wider intervals be compared with those 
of a rising direction, and the diference between the intonation of 
a question, and a comand, will be strikingly manifest. 

When the pupil has gone over the elements, on the simple 
rising and faling intervals, let him turn to their combination, in 
the wave. Here his practice must be governed by his perception 
of the simple intervals which variously compose its diferent kinds. 



492 THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 

The wave of the second is of great importance, in the grave and 
dignified character of the diatonic melody. I cannot by direct 
description, bring it before the ear; but in giving prolonged quan- 
tity to indefinite sylables, if the efect of the upward or downward 
wider intervals is not recognizedj nor the peculiar note of songj 
nor the marked impresion of the wider wavesj nor that of the 
plaintive semitonej it may be concluded, the voice is moving in 
the wave of the second. 

Of Practice on Melody. An important purpose on this point 
is the perception of the radical changes of the second, in the cur- 
rent of discourse. If the pupil has a musical ear, he may easily 
acquire the habit of varying the several phrases in the maner for- 
merly proposed. Should he not have a nice perception of sound, 
nor ingenuity in experiment, he must learn the diatonic progresion 
from the voice of a previously-instructed master. 

Melody is a continuous function ; practice under this head must 
therefore be made on sucesive sylables. The best method is to 
select a portion of discourse, to keep in mind the diatonic maner 
in which it should be read, and at the same time, to uter only the 
tonic element of each sylable ; and by a sort of vocal short-hand, 
or instant hackings of a momentary cough, to go thro this doted 
outline as it were, of the melody. In this case, the ear not being 
embarassed by the subtonics, the diference between rise and fall in 
radical pitch, will be more aparent, and consequently the power of 
avoiding monotony, and of mingling all the phrases in an agreeable 
variety, more easily atained. 

Of Practice on the Cadence. The cadence is an important part 
of the melody of speech ; and readers being therein liable to fre- 
quent and striking faults, the subject requires discriminative aten- 
tion. Here particularly the elementary practice is to be employed ; 
the pupil bearing in mind the diferent forms of intonation for ter- 
minating a sentence^ and exercising his voice separately on one, 
two, or three elements or sylables, considered as a close. 

By elementary practice on the various species of the cadencej 
comand over their intonation will be exercised, with a perceptible 
acuracy, never yet within the incoherent purpose of any ancient or 
modern system of Imitative discipline ; for many of these pur- 
poses wxre only dreams. After the proper time devoted to the 



THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 493 

plan here recomended, the pupil will be provided with an ample 
fund for every variety in his periods ; nor will he then find him- 
self at the end of his sentence, with a sylable that seems to have 
got out-of-joint with its intonation. 

Of Practice on the Tremor. The tremulous movement should 
be practiced on individual elements. With a knowledge of its 
various forms, the pupil may corect himself in his task, and finaly 
acquire the acuracy, so esential to this remarkable expresion. If 
the habit of laughing and crying does here furnish a wide field of 
practice, it is to be recolectedj we laugh and cry instinctively, upon 
our own delight and sufering. When the tremulous expresion is 
employed to afect an audience, governed in its tastej as it may 
come to pass hereafter, by the knowledge and principles we are 
here unfolding^ it should be done, not only acording to the dictates 
of Nature, and within the iluminated circle of her truth, but with 
that refinement, and finish of execution, which her incipient in- 
stinct may not have had the purpose to acomplish ; while yet ready 
to acknowledge their entire consistency with her prospective and 
progresive laws. 

Of Practice on Vocality. Vocality is capable of improvement ; 
and the practice in this case may be either on the elements, or on 
the curent of discourse. Yet as this mode of the voice is most 
perceptible on the tonic sound, perhaps the elementary leson is the 
best for instruction. In whatever maner the improving exercise 
is conductedj by it, harshnes may be somewhat softenedj a husky 
voice be brought nearer to pure vocalityj the piercing treble re- 
duced in pitch j and the thin and meager voice indued with greater 
fumes and strength. 

There is, however, a misconception on this subject, which may 
be noticed here. 

The characteristic Vocalities, or, as confounded with Pitch, and 
vaguely caled, the distinguishing c tones/ of the voice, are said to 
be unlimited, and like the face, peculiar to each individual. We 
do not often forget or confound the known voices of individuals, 
however numerous they may be; a popular proof, that we all 
have an instinctive and discriminative ear, for the things of Speech, 
without having names for them. But the distinct recognition is 
here made upon combinations of the specific degrees, and forms of 



494 THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 

force, pitch, and time, rather than on the single mode of vocality. 
One speaker is characterized by a constant use of the vanishing 
stres ; another by that of the radical ; one employs the interval of 
a third in the curent melody instead of a second ; some a long, 
and others a short quantity on every emphatic word. By a varied 
permutation of these features, a counties number of diferent, yet 
distinguishable faces, is given to the body of speech. And here, 
as a com en t on the prevalent notion, that speech with its ' occult 
qualities/ is too subtle, imaterial, or, to use the Platonic ' slang ' 
of the nineteenth century, too 'spiritual/ to be made a subject of 
physical investigation let us remark, that all these faces, features, 
aye, and delicate expresions of speech are practically conizable by 
comon perception. 

There is as great a variety in vocality, as in any one mode of 
the voicej and more than of some ; the amount however, falls far 
short of the almost endles combinations of the various forms of 
the Modes with each other. 

We may learn that vocality is not always its distinguishing 
markj by atending to the prolonged note of song ; for this makes 
it more obvious. In perceving a prolonged note, exclusive of any 
peculiarity of stres, time, or intonation, it is not easy to distinguish 
voices, that widely difer when heard under the mingling modes 
of speech, in only a single sentence. Of the speaking voices of a 
thousand persons, each would be distinguishable, by its peculiar 
manner of using the various permuted forms of pitch, time, and 
stress. If the same voices were severaly to be indicated by a single 
prolonged note of song, the diferences in vocality might be reduced 
to a few classes. There would be forte and piano voices heard 
among them, shrill and hoarse, clear, aspirated, harsh, full, meager, 
dull, and sub-sonorous : and to these a few others might be added. 
Yet even these would, in some cases, be perceptible only to a cul- 
tivated ear ; and of the whole thousand, above suposed, perhaps 
not more than twenty clases of vocality, as subjects of recognition 
could be found, to constitute twenty diferent kinds. 

Of the Orotund as a kind of voice, we spoke in a former sec- 
tion ; and there described the means by which the fulnes, power, 
and graver character of this voice may be atained. It might per- 
haps asist the Reader in using the proper means for acquiring the 



THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 495 

orotund, to know, that the vocality in this case, is apt to change 
into what we formerly caled the basso-falsetej producing that 
' double-lung ' kind of speech, of mingled bass and treble. 

Of Practice in Rapidity of Speech. Extreme rapidity of speech 
may be employed for ataining comand over the voice. The difi- 
culty, of making transitions from one position of the organs of 
articulation to another, requires an exertion which tends to increase 
their strength and activity; and this enables them to execute the 
usual time of speech, without hesitation. I would recomend the 
utmost possible precipitancy of uterance ; taking care not to outrun 
the complete articulation of every element j and this makes it ad- 
visable to set the leson on some discourse, long fixed in the mem- 
ory, that no embarasment may arise from the distracting efort of 
recolection. 

There is not much advantage to be derived from elementary 
practice on Aspiration, the Emphatic vocule, and Gutural vibra- 
tion. The exact and forcible execution of these functions, does 
not require the exclusive atention, directed by the rudimental sys- 
tem of practice ; nor is anything to be efected thereby, that may 
not perhaps, for all practical and tasteful purposes, be acomplished 
in the current of discourse. 



This is a brief enumeration of the articulative, the thotive, 
and the expresive constituents of the whole asemblage of speech. 
An interesting inquiry isj whether we should aim to acquire a full 
power over these constituents, by exercising the voice on their 
combinations, in curent discourse, or by separate and repeated 
practice on their individual forms.* 

* Perhaps the analogy would be too remote, to draw an example of the 
elementary and synthetic method of instruction, from the gradual process of 
infant speech. But I cannot, while the subject is before me, avoid a few 
remarks, on what apears to be the order of that proces. 

Altho we should reject every fictional date, and they are all fictional j for 
the origin of language ; and every suposition of one or of many parts of the 
earth as well as of the maner, in which it did begins still the sucesion in the 
instinctive eforts of present infant speech is freely open to investigation. 

In a Note to our section on Time, there is a pasing question^ Whether the 



496 THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 

It is needles to offer arguments in favor of an elementary 
didactic system to those, who, from experience in acquiring the 

abrupt elements were not prompted by sudden instinctive impulses, at that 
almost inconceivable event, the beginning of speech. Since the date of our 
fourth edition in eighteen hundred and fifty-five, I have read in the Introduc- 
tion to Mr. Charles Richardson's Etymological Dictionary, the clear exempli- 
fication of his analyticaly tracing many of the full-formed words of cultivated 
language, to roots of a primary meaning in the individual elements : and not- 
withstanding the philological Ethnologist, and the writers on the Mind have 
not had the curiosity or time, to learn how far our history of the voice might 
assist their researches, I will still endeavor to draw their attention, by aply- 
ing some of the principles of nature to the present fashionable inquiry into 
the origin and language of man. 

It is known, that in the ful-established system of the vocal signs, the states 
of mind variously employ the modes of vocality, force, time, abruptness and 
intonation ; and that the first audible eforts of infant-expresion are purely 
vowel sounds, under the forms of cry, scream, and of fainter vocalities called 
humming and cooing; together with a varied time, force, and intonation of 
these sounds, and even of their suden break into abruptnes. These vowel 
signs, as well as we observe, denote the first perception of pleasure or pain or 
of physical wants. So far then, these individual elements have a meaning, 
and are the real and simple roots of language, in the signs of infant perceptionj 
for we cannot give the then state of mind the name of thot or pasion. The 
consonants next folow, in the progres of speech ; and still to found the origin 
of language in nature, certain instinctive muscular functions prepare the vo- 
cal mechanism for the production of these elements. The early act of draw- 
ing nourishment strongly exercises the muscles that close and open the lips ; 
and furnishes the organic means, which with the acompaniment of vocality, 
or aspiration^ already prepared by instinctive efortj produce in the former 
case, the elements B, M, and V, and in the latter, F, and P. In the same 
act the aplication of the tongue to the palate, and to the uper and the lower 
gums, constitutes the mechanism, that with vocality, or with aspiration, 
severaly forms G, K, D, T, N, R, TA-in, and Th-en. 

The next instinctive-elemental and significant sign would perhaps be the 
incipient tremor on the interval of the tone or second, or wider interval, for 
the expresion of infantile satisfaction; and sobing, with the tremor on the 
semitone for distres. Coughing would early give a comand over abruptnes, 
and prepare for the radical stres, and distinct articulation of perfect speech. 
"We do not asume that single consonants are at first, mental signs ; nor after- 
wards, except in the expresive aspirations of s, and h; and as it would be 
steping aside from the caution of philosophy to supose, that in some infantile 
eforts they may be so, we leave this subject for those who think it deserves 
stricter investigation. The instinctive vowels with their intonations are the 
first signs of the pleasures, pains, and wants of the child : and observation 
teach esj they denote these perceptions, as certainly as they can be denoted by 
the full-formed words of conventional language. 



THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 497 

sciences, have formed for themselves economical and efective plans 
of study. Let all others be toldj that one, and perhaps the only 
cause why elocutionists have never employed such a system, is, 
that they have overlooked the analytic means of inquiry into the 
subject of vocal expresion; and have therefore wanted both the 
knowledge and nomenclature for an elementary method of instruc- 
tion. Science and art have too many proofs of the suces of this 
rudimental method, to alow us to supose, the same means would 
not have been adopted in elocution, if they had been known to the 
master. 

Not to cite instances from those graver studies which procede 
by the synthetic steps of elementary principles ; and with no in- 
tention to shame the ' genius' of an elocutionist and his gramar of 
imitation, let us go to the Ring, and see the Science of muscular 
atack and defense, an over-match for the best eforts of strength 
and pasion, when undirected by gymnastic skill. The ' Fancy' 
have realy niade no slang-like or degrading aplication of the word. 
Science, as we usefuly regard it, does no more than lay-down for 
art, those general principles, and eficacious rules which sagacity 
has drawn from observation and trial : and tho it may not always 
enoble the subject it touches, it does keep from it, that char- 
acteristic of brutality^ the instinctive execution of what, in its 
causes and efects, is not perceved by the agent. Yes, even the 
Pugilistic Art, low in purpose yet skilful as it is, has for the 

There is a further adition to primary speech, when the consonants are 
acidentaly combined with vowels, into the sylabic impulse ; as in Ap and 
Am, or reversely, Pa and Ma. The sense of hearing then becomes observ- 
ant : imitation folows, and monosylabic language with its capacity for endles 
combination into words of varied extent begins. 

It may therefore seem, that by Mr. Kichardson's observations, the ultimate 
roots of languages are the significant elements. Under this view, the roots of 
all languages must have a comon origin ; displaying the unity of nature, not 
only in the prevalence of the same principles of articulation and of vocal ex- 
presion, in every age and nation, as we have after close analysis, represented 
it? but in the origin of that articulation, and expresion, in whatever part or 
parts of the earthy or in whatever age or ages it may once or oftener, have 
ocured. Should future observation confirm Mr. Kichardson's view, and the 
few remarks we have aded to it, it will be learned, that the five modes of the 
voice, which combine to make the vast variety of mature and expresive lan- 
guagej are found in limited use, to constitute what on like principle we may 
call the incipient expresion of infant wants, and pleasure or pain. 



498 THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 

time, outstriped the philosophic eforts of Elocution ; and claimed 
for its method and precepts, the justifiable name of Science. And 
beleve me, Readerj the elementary training in its positions and 
motions, caries not more superiority over the untaught arm, than 
the definite rules of elocution, founded on a knowledge of the 
constituents of the voice, will have over the best spontaneous 
achievements of pasion. 

Let me not be mistaken on this point. Altho I do not say, the 
method of instruction here proposed, can create the esential powers 
of a speaker^ futurity will probably show, that some such system 
alone can direct, enlarge, and perfect them. ' Passion/ says a 
writer, i knows more than art.' It may, in its own way, know 
more than the Old Elocutionary art ; but the Art of Science, so to 
speak, in its own way, like prudence in human afairs, sometimes 
knows beter than passion. A display of the pasions in speech, is 
not always adresed to persons under the sympathetic influence of 
those pasions. When it is, or when at moments, the speaker can 
raise that sympathy, and pasion becomes the selfish party-Tyrant 
of the mind, all is right, however wrong, that pasion does. When 
pasion is no longer the despot either of words or will, and we are 
caled upon to make some proper use of its active perception, with- 
out its waywardnes and partizan exceses, such comparisons arise 
between our own state, on ocasions of excitement, and what we 
perceve in othersj that we are obliged to call upon observation 
and taste for some educational rule, of Things as they Should bej to 
settle an uncertainty of opinion. Pasion as we know it, is only 
the Enacting of a certain character of expresion ; and being with 
none, except fools and madmen, an Outlaw of the Mind, is still 
amenable to its purposed and directive, tho excited authority. We 
need not go far, for the true history of what is caled the Natural 
Maner in Speech, prompted by spontaneous and uneducated pasion ; 
for pasion is a wise instinct of nature, but is always perverted, if 
never improvingly taut. The everyday vulgar triumphs of popu- 
lar eloquence, in which the demagogue, and the sectary, lead away 
an audience, eager to pursue the same selfish schemes of profit, or 
vanity, or fanatical delusion, are proof of what this oratorical sym- 
pathy is ; and what a wild and artful pasion alone can sometimes 
do, without the aid of truth, or honesty or taste : for in these as in 



THE MEANS OF INSTEUCTIOX IN ELOCUTION. 499 

other popular relations, the more an orator influences the pasions 
of others, the more those pasions make a slave of himself. 

TTe look for no more, from a well devised practical system of 
elocution, than we are every day receving from established arts. 
All men speak and ' reason/ in the comon way, for these acts 
are as natural as pasion; but the arts of gramar, rhetoric, and 
thinking teach us to do these things in the best maner, or rather, 
doing them in the best maner is signified by the name of these 
arts. 

The subject of elementary instruction may be otherwise re- 
garded. The human muscles are, at the daily call of exercise, 
obedient to the will. There is scarcely a boy of physical activity 
or enterprise, who on seeing a circus-rider, does not desire, in 
some way to imitate him; to catch and keep the center of gravity 
thru the varieties of balance and motion. Yet this will not pre- 
vent failure in his first atempts, however close the collection be- 
tween his will and his muscles may be. For without trial, he 
knows imperfectly what is to be done ; and even with that knowl- 
edge, is unable, without long practice, to efect it. Many persons, 
with both thot and pasion, have a free comand of the voice, on the 
comon ocasions of life, who yet uterly fail, when they atempt to 
imitate the varied power of the habitual speaker. When the 
voice is prepared by elementary practice^ thots and pasions find 
the confirmed and pliant means, ready to efect a satisfactory and 
elegant acomplishment of their purposes. 

The organs of speech are capable of a certain range of exertion; 
and to fulfil all the demands of a finished elocution, they should 
be caried to the extent of that capability. Actors with both 
strong and delicate perceptions, and who earnestly expres them in 
speech, are always aproximating toward this power in the voice ; 
and with no more than the asistance of a habitual exercise which 
enlarges their instinct, do in time, acquire a comand over the forms 
and degrees of pitch, and stres, and time; without the Actor 
himself being at all aware of the how, and the what, of his vocal 
atainments, or having perhaps, one inteligent, or inteligible per- 
ception of the ways, means, and efects of their aplication. The 
elementary method of instruction here proposed, being founded on 
the analysis of speechj at once points out to the Actor what is to 



500 THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 

be desired and atained ; and how every vocal purpose of thot, and 
pasion should be fulfiled. 

It was not until long after the invention of the Bow for the 
gliding touch of chorded instruments, that its use was subjected 
to acurate atention. A few belonging to that class of mankind 
who thru precise and enlarged observation, with its steady aim, 
find out for themselves, the best way to efect their object, may 
have exhibited rare instances of skill in its management. As soon 
however as the celebrated Tartini had made an analysis of their 
dexterity, the master was able to point out to the pupil the mus- 
cular sleight of wrist and arm which its handling requires ; their 
combined and sucesive motions; together with that full perception 
of the will as it seems, present in the muscle, which insures unde- 
viating steadines in every sweep, and gives the power of a sort of 
voluntary spasm for the purpose of a momentary touch. When 
these points were ascertained, instruction began to adopt the econ- 
omy of . elementary rules ; and confidence, rapidity, precision, 
smoothnes, and variety of execution, became comon acomplish- 
ments in the art of Bowing. 

When an atempt is made to teach an art, without comencing 
with its simple elements, combinations of elements pass with the 
pupil for the elements themselves, and holding them to be almost 
infinite, he abandons his hopeles task. An education by the 
method we here recomend, reverses this disheartening duty. It 
reduces the seeming infinity to computable numbers ; and I have 
suposedj one of the first coments on the foregoing analysis, may 
refer to the unexpected simplicity of means, employed to produce 
the unbounded permutations of speech. Nay, this esay itself 
will fare beter than other similar eforts in science, if some of the 
perishing criticism of the day should not find suficient motive 
with itself, for overlooking the dificulty, of penetrating the mys- 
terious thicket of speech, and of tracing its interwoven branches to 
their palpable roots, by being told how few and how acessible they 
are. 

In our proposed method of instruction, we have in view the 
strictest propriety, and the highest finish of the voice. An ordi- 
nary and even vicious use of Speech, as we all know, may serve 
for Buying and Selling, either in the common course of Trade, or 



THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 501 

in Election-Frauds, and Legislative Bribery. When the powers 
and beauties of the voice are the subject of reflection and taste, it 
is necesary to employ the most comprehensive and precise means 
for its cultivation. It would be posible, even without regard to 
the alphabet, to teach a savage to read, by directing him, word 
by word, to folow a master. And it has been proposed to teach 
elocution, by a similar process of imitative instruction. But the 
atentive Reader must now know with me, and others may know 
among themselves hereafter, that the analysis of words into their 
alphabetic elements, and the rudimerital method of teaching insti- 
tuted thereupon, do not give more facility, in the discriminations 
of the eye on a written page, than the means here proposed will 
aford to the student of elocution, who wishes to excel in all the 
useful and elegant purposes of speech. The master having now at 
comand a knowledge of the vocal constituents^ which already fore- 
tels, and by future aplication will furnish a precise and universal 
system of music in speechj let him adopt that elementary method 
of instruction which has made another music familiar to the minds 
of children, and spread its refined and heart-felt pleasure thruout 
the civilized world. 

To begin this elementary, and only sucesful method of teaching 
the otherwise unteachable esthetic art of speechj let the master and 
his pupil, or his whole school, meet at first, without their little text- 
books ; the master having already the great Book of Nature by 
heart. Let the master then exemplify the five constituent modes 
of the voice ; the formation of the musical scale, with the expla- 
nation of its divisions and uses ; the four scales of speech ; the 
concrete and discrete pitch in all its forms ; the graceful gliding 
of the vanish, with the efect of the second and of other intervals. 
Let him make the pupil sensible of the diference of these inter- 
vals by separate and by contrasted uterance ; of the peculiarities of 
a rising and of a faling movement ; of the waves ; of the diatonic, 
and the chromatic melodies ; of the cadences ; and of the streses ; 
making the lesons an exemplification of every constituent function 
of speech. Let the pupil practice all this when he retires ; and 
on returning, let it not be to hear his master read, and vainly try 
to imitate himj but to repeat his elementary task, thro all the 
available modes, forms, and varieties of the voice. When he is 



502 THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 

completely familiar with these rudiments, then and not before, let 
him begin to read. 

Should high acomplishment in elocution be an object of am- 
bition, the system of instruction ofered in this section, may until 
a better method is proposed, furnish the easiest and shortest means 
for suces. 

With all these rules however, the best contrived scheme will be 
of little avail, without the utmost zeal and perseverance on the 
part of the learner. It is an impressive saying by an elegant 
' genius' of the Augustan age, who drew his maxim from the 
Greek Tragedy, and ilustrated it by his own life and fame, that 
( nothing is given to mortals without indefatigable labor ; ' meanings 
that works of surpasing merit, and suposed to procede from a pe- 
culiar endowment by Heaven, are in reality, the product of hard 
and unremiting industry. 

It is pitiable to witnes the hopes and conceits of ambition, when 
unasisted by its required exertions. The art of reading- well is an 
acomplishmentj all desire to possess, many think they have already, 
and a few undertake to acquire. These, beleving their power is 
altogether in their ' Genius/ are, after a few lessons from an Elo- 
cutionist, disapointed at not becoming themselves at once masters 
of the art; and with the restles vanity of their belief, abandon 
the study, for some new subject of trial and failure. Such cases 
of infirmity result in part from the wavering character of the 
human Tribe ; but chiefly, from defects in the usual course of 
instruction. Go to some, may we say all of our Colleges and 
Universities, and observe how the art of speaking, is not taught 
there. See a boy of but fifteen years, with no want of youthful 
difidence, and not without a craving desire to learn j sent upon a 
Stage, pale and choking with aprehension; being forced into an 
atempt to do that, without instruction, which he came purposely 
to learn ; and furnishing amusement to his classmates, by a pardon- 
able awkwardnes, that should be punished, in the person of his 
pretending but neglectful preceptor, with little less than scourg- 
ing. Then visit a Conservatorio of music ; observe there, the 
elementary outset, the orderly task, the masterly discipline, the 
unwearied superintendence, and the incesant toil to reach the utmost 
acomplishment in the Singing- Voice ; and afterwards do not be 



THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 503 

surprised that the pulpit, the senate, the bar, and the chair of 
medical profesorship, are filed with such abominable drawlers, 
mouthers, mumblers, cluterers, squeakers, chanters, and mongers 
in monotony : nor that the schools of Singing are constantly send- 
ing abroad those great instances of vocal wonder, who triumph 
along the crowded resorts of the world; who contribute to the 
halls of fashion and wealth, their most refined source of gratifica- 
tion; who sometimes quel the pride of rank, by a momentary 
sensation of envy ; and who draw forth the admiration, and receve 
the crowning aplause of the Prince and the Stage.* 

* It is remarkable of the Science of the Voice, that the sucessful cultiva- 
tion of the department of Song, thru the close and beautiful analysis of mel- 
ody, and harmony, should never have extended the ambition of its inquiry 
and suces, into the more important, and equaly esthetic department of speech. 

Having, after a long and active search, colected quite a library of good, 
bad, and indifferent works on elocution ; and, with the exception of Mr. Steele, 
Mr. Odel, and Mr. Walker, finding them all, both ancient and modern, to be 
composed of the same comon materials of the art, aranged and detailed with 
a varied ability : I had some curiosity to know the practical method of emi- 
nent Vocal Institutions. During my residence in Paris, thru the winter of 
eighteen hundred and forty-five — six, I sought by every due efort, to obtain 
from direct, and personal observation, a knowledge of the instructive Course 
of Declamation employed in the Conservatorio. I learned however, from a 
friend of some influence in this matter, that by a general rule, admision could 
not be obtained. 

Upon information derived from a Vocalist, at that time under tuition, for 
his apearance in the Operas who described to me, the directive, and examplary 
means of the master, the imitative practice of the pupil, and the detailed 
rotine of the taskj I was led to conclude^ they had no knowledge, out of the 
comon way, on the construction, and intonative meaning, either of Declama- 
tion or Eecitative ; nor one spark of a Philosophy of Speech, to throw the 
least light of explanation upon them : and tho the exclusion of visitors, might 
be no deprivation to the studious observer^ the duties of the Institution would 
by this precaution, be saved from the vexatious intrusion of the tens of thou- 
sands idle, restles, and ennui'd Sojourners in the great Metropolis. 

That the French, like the rest of the world, have not the least perception of 
a system of the voice, founded on the ordination of nature, and denoting the 
diferent states of mind in thot and pasion, must apear from their Histrionic 
Elocution. If the Glory, Wisdom and Taste of France, strangely concen- 
tered, as it is self asumed to be in Paris, should ever acknowledge the posi- 
bility of there being any imperfection in its state ; and cease to think, it has 
already reached ' the highest degree of civilization ; ' it will perhaps, perceve 
the peculiar and bombastic system of its intonation ; and then atempt to 
corect it, by some other means, than that of the rule of its own exagerated 



504 RYTHMUS OF SPEECH. 

SECTION L. 

Of the Rythmus of Speech. 

In the section on Time, some alusion was made to the subject of 
Rythmus. I there described the circumstances under which stress 
and time, or as they are otherwise caled, acent and quantity, pro- 
duce by their alternations the agreeable impresions of verse. I 

and habitual expresion. The English, phlegmatic as they are suposed to be, 
are prone to employ an over-proportion of vivid constituents in that curent 
which should be a plain diatonic melody. But the Trench, far exceding them 
in this use of the wider intervals and waves, do not employ the diatonic 
melody, or only ocasionaly, in their oratorical and dramatic speech. 

We have learned how rarely the plain and dignified forms of the second 
and its waves are heard even on the English stage ; and that, without an ad- 
justed intermingling of the expresive and the inexpresive constituents of 
speech, no Actor can atain tragic distinction, or long maintain it, with an 
audience of educated perception and taste. In this improper use of wider 
intervals and waves, the English, from the construction of their Language, 
have less apology than the French, for the exceses of their intonation. It is 
well known, that the acentual character of the English language consists in a 
forcible stres on certain sylables, with a feeble stres on others^ the later being 
more numerous ; and the diference in degree of the streses being so fixed and 
remarkable, as to furnish a rythmus of acent or quantity for the construction 
of its Blank-verse ; which serves the further purpose of releving the monotony 
of its rhyme, by the variety of a strong and atractive acent, sucesively faling 
on a different sylabic sound, and by the cesural pause, in the course of the 
line. 

With the French language the case is diferent. It has a perceptible varia- 
tion, in the force of its acents, and the duration of its quantities ; but not 
suficiently marked, nor of such a systematic character, as to make an available 
prosodial meter. The French Epic and Dramatic lines, for they cannot be 
caled prosodial measures, properly consist each of twelve sylables ; tho they 
have sometimes ten or eleven. Among them is ocasionaly found, a sucesion 
of acent and quantity resembling the various structures of English verse. 
There is an example of our anapestic measure, in the first Canto and second 
line of Voltaire's Henriade, 

Et par droit de conquete et par droit de naissance. 

Alowing for the manor of the French, in prolonging their sylables, many 



RYTHMUS OF SPEECH. 505 

now ofer a more formal acount of this mater, with the design to 
speak of the Rythmus of prose ; and to notice in as few words as 

like corespondencies to the usual English measures may be gathered from 
what they call their heroic rhyme. 

But all such cases are acidental in French versification, and do not acord 
with the general character of its iregular sucesion : a sucesion, shocking to 
the English ear, and uterly without a flowing rythmus either as poetry or 
prose. 

We pronounce the word acommodation with a strong accent on the second 
and fourth sylables, and a contrasted feeble one, on the third and fifth : whereas 
the French, with whom it has six sylables, as ac-com-mo-da-ci-on, make but a 
slight variation in the degree of stres among them. Hence, if the word be 
moderately caricatured by a full stres on every sylable, it will resemble French 
pronunciation. And in general, to mimic that pronunciation, in English 
words, it is only necesary to substitute de, for the; to give, to the English ear 
at least, an afected prolongation to certain sylables, and a like degree of acent 
on all. It may be perceved that the French language, in its acent and quan- 
tity, does not admit of Blank-verse ; as no proper prosodial meter can be given 
to its lines. Under this condition, instead of altogether rejecting the vain 
atempt at measure, and employing plain but dignified prose, in their Epic and 
Dramatic composition^ they endeavor to suply the want of a regular temporal 
and acentual rythmus, by the poor regularity of an equal number of sylables 
in each of their lines, and by terminating them with rhyme : and on this 
ground alone to raise the verbal structure of their poetry. May we not there- 
fore admire the esthetic choice of the ' amiable' Fenelon, who tells the grace- 
ful and instructive story of Telemachus, in the unembarassed dignity of Prose, 
by excluding the puerile counting of sylables, and chime of words, in French 
heroic versification? 

I would submisively propose as a subject of future inquiry among the French, 
who;; whenever they look at themselves, by the light of an analytic speech, 
will be the best judges in the casej whether this peculiar construction led to 
their use of the florid and exagerated form of their Histrionic intonation : and 
whether, in the desire to withdraw the ear from the paling efect of the equal 
count of sylables ; and to lesen the monotony of the rhymes, they did not 
purposely endeavor to produce, thruout the curent, and particularly at the 
close of proximate lines, a contrast of striking intervals and waves; such as 
that of a rising interval, or an indirect wave, at the end of one line, and a 
reverse movement on the next; without those intonations having the least 
regard to a natural propriety of expresion. For we must remember^ the 
monotony of French rhymej which under English law is not always canonical j 
and of its equal number of sylables, is not relevable by the atractive rythmus, 
of the English maner of acentual or temporal measure. And finaly, whether 
by this atempt to avoid monotony, they did not substitute, that equaly strik- 
ing and more eroneous monotony, which is always produced by impresive 
intervals improperly aplied. 

This is the view, which our ' Philosophy ' of speech ofers of the universal 
33 



506 RYTHMUS OF SPEECH. 

posible, the original and practical system of Mr. Steele, on the 
subject of acentuation and pause : this being among the first results, 
in modern times, of an inquiry into the philosophy of spoken 
language. 

Speech would not be suited to the interchange of thot and 
pasion, if every sylable of every word were sucesively and equaly 
acented. For by this uniform acentuation, it would want that 
vocal light and shade, and that pronounced relief, required for a 
distinct picture of mental and audible perception j consequently 
thots would not be easily distinguished from each other; and 
speech would be inconveniently slow. Whether this slownes 
would result from the hiatus, in pasing from one acent to another, 
each with a full radical upon it, we need not here inquire. It is 
enuf to know, that if the folowing, or any other sentence be read 
with every sylable acented, the delay will be unavoidable. 

The Eight of suf-frage in a Ke-pub-lic, will, thru the suc-es-ive 
Oli-gar-chy of weak and am-bi-tious Knaves, al-ways end in the Wrongs 
of the Peo-ple. 

Although this political axiom should be deliberately read as well 
as closely laid to heart ; still, with an impresive acent on every 
sylable, the pronunciation of this eternal truth would far excede 
in time, even what its solemn uterance deserves. Let us take 
another example, to be read with forcible and proximate acent. 

The dif-er-ence be-tween the two great An-tag-o-nists a-mong na- 
tions, is this : In a Des-pot-ism, the gov-ern-ment preys up-on the peo- 

prevalence of the remarkable intonation in French Tragedy : a philosophy, 
drawn from the ordination of nature in the human voice, and that should 
make no alowance for national self-deception, and its self-solacing vanity. 
Be this view admisible or not, my observation ventures to afirm this excesive 
use of florid intervals, in all the French Tragedians I have heard, including 
an Actress of the day, whom the Critics of Paris, with unbounded eulogy, 
but without the least vocal discrimination, present to the world as the para- 
gon of Tragic Art. I say nothing here, of gesture and other acompaniments 
of this vivid and false intonation : nor of Comedy and Vaudeville, which tho 
employing a somewhat exagerated form of coloquial speech are altogether 
most admirable. 

Could I have had the oportunity of personaly observing the method of 
teaching Declamation in the Conservatorio, I might have spoken with more 
fulnes, and acuracy on this subject. 



EYTHMUS OF SPEECH. 507 

pie. In a De-moc-ra-cy, the peo-ple prey up-on the gov-ern-ment. The 
life-blood is drawn a-like by each. In one case by the Ea-gle ; in the 
oth-er by the Eats. 

It is from this alternation of strong and weak acent, with the 
variations of long and short quantity, that the graceful flow of 
style, and much of the power and beauty of speech are derived. 

This being the character of the acentual function, Mr. Steele, 
by an original view of the relations between acent, quantity, and 
pause, made divisions of the line of speech, analogous to the 
Bars of musical notation. These may be caled Acentual Sec- 
tions.* 

We will atempt to explain part of the system of Mr. Steele, 
by the folowing sentence ; using italics in place of his symbol 
for the acented sylable; the numeral seven for the pause; and 
marking the sections, merely for reference. 

12 3 4 5 6 

| 7 In the | sec ond | cent u-ry | 7 of the | christ ian [ e ra | 

7 8 9 10 11 12 

| 7 the | em pire of | Rome | 7 com-pre | hend ed the \fah est | 

13 14 15 16 17 18 _ 
I part of the | earth 7 | 7 and the | most 7 | civ i-lized | por tion | 

19 20. 

| 7 of man | kind. | 

Mr. Steele first asumes the time of the several bars to be equal, 
like that of the bars in music ; the term bar, meaning, not the 
vertical lines, but the space between them. He next subdivides a 
sentence into bars, each of equal time ; that time consisting, either 
altogether of verbal sound, or of a verbal sound and of a silent 
time or pause. Suposing then a bar, or acentual section, to con- 
tain, in its verbal time, one, and never more than one, acented 

* The Greek Khetoricians gave the name of Prosodial Feet, to certain ar- 
angements of long and short sylablesj these being identical in place however, 
respectively with the acented and unacented ; metaphorically implying the 
regular progresion of poetical lines, by the measured steps of quantity and 
acent. A foot with its first sylable short and its second long, or its first 
lightly and its second strongly acented, was caled an Iambus, as consume. 
When this order of quantity and acent is reversed, a Trochee, as morn-ing. 
A foot of three sylables, with the first long and the other two short, or the 
first strongly and the others lightly acented, a Dactyl, as grdce-ful-ly. Mr. 
Steele's purpose was to aply to prose-reading, a rythmus founded on these 
principles of poetic construction. 



508 RYTHMUS OF SPEECH. 

sylable, or heavy Poize, as he calls it ; and one or more unacented, 
which he calls the light Poize; the begining of the bar is always 
ocupied by the heavy acent, and the end by the light, or in their 
absence, by a respectively equivalent silent time or pause. In the 
first bar of the above example, there is no heavy accent, for the 
sentence begins with two light sylables, but its time is indicated 
by the symbol of a silent pause : the two light are set at the end 
of the acentual section. The word second, in the next bar, has a 
heavy sylable folowed by a light one, and thus makes a full and 
audible time. In the third bar, the word century has a heavy, 
folowed by two light sylables. The fourth has the same time in 
sylable and pause, as the first. The fifth and sixth are of the 
same construction as the second. The seventh has one light acent, 
and a pause in place of the heavy. The eighth is like the third. 
The ninth and twentieth have each one heavy acent ; for each syla- 
ble being a prolongable quantity, the time may be extended to an 
equality with that of the other bars. The fourteenth and six- 
teenth have each, like the last-named, a heavy ; but wanting the 
light, its time is suplied by a pause: for the short quantity of 
these words does not alow their prolongation to the full time of a 
bar. The other bars are only respectively, repetitions of those 
already described. If we supose so many sylables within a bar, 
as to require an improper precipitancy of uterance, to make the 
time of the sections equal, it becomes necesary to add a new bar, 
for the redundant light sylables, and to set them at the end of the 
new bar, and the symbol of a pause, at the begining, in place 
of the heavy or acented sylable. In the example, we might put 
j century of the | into one section ; but when the sentence is read 
deliberately, this section is too long. It is beter ordered in the 
example, by a subdivision, and by a pause in the place of an 
acented sylable. An imediate sucesion of long quantities may 
alow a change of the rythmus. In the eighth bar of the example, 
em has the first place, as the acented sylable ; and it may be em- 
phaticaly prolonged to the time of an entire bar; but pire is so 
impresive by its quantity that it also may form the first part of a 
bar, and the division may bej | em \ pire of | Home | . It is the 
same with the seventeenth ; where tho civ is the acented, lized is 
the longer sylable, and we may have the divisions^ | civ i | lized | ; 



RYTHMUS OF SPEECH. 509 

the last long sylable, from its quantity suplying the time of an 
entire bar. With this general explanation, the Reader is refered 
to Mr. Steele's work, for a more particular acount of the system. 
Perhaps I have not properly marked the bars of this sentence. 
My purpose however, being only to ilustratej others may with an 
ear of taste, improve the reading for themselves. Yet it is worthy 
of remark, that if this sentence is read without its linear divisions^ 
the voice of a good reader is disposed to make its pauses in those 
very places, and of that duration, visibly indicated by the symbol 
of the pause, both in the light and heavy parts of the bar ; show- 
ing the instinct of the voice ; with the powers of analysis, and 
the originality of Mr. Steele. 

It will perhaps be asked herej What is the meaning of these 
divisions? And what useful purpose they serve in instruction? 

All works on elocution before the time of Mr. Steele, recomend 
the acurate acentuation of words, and a strict atention to their 
separation at the proper places for pausing. And altho Mr. 
Sheridan gives particular examples of notation for rhetorical em- 
phasis, and for pause, he lays-down no formal rule, to direct a 
pupil on these points, as Mr. Steele has done, by his divisional 
bars placed before the heavy accent. The importance of the sub- 
ject in our early schools, may be learned from the maner in which 
children begin to read; for their hesitating uterance, and their 
close atention to the single word, lead them to lay an equal stres 
on every sylable, or at least on every word. This habit continues 
a long time after the eye has acquired a facility in folowing up dis- 
course ; and in some cases infects pronunciation during subsequent 
life : as it is not till the tongue goes triping, or rather halting, with 
its firm and its tender step on words, that the ear becomes sensible 
of the use and beauty of acent. Mr. Steele's notation having a 
symbol for the degrees of stres, here marked by an italic sylable, 
presents a visible analogy to the light and heavy impresion, and 
furnishes a child with the picture of his leson on acent, and with 
a monitor to his ear. I do not sayj this object would not be 
atained in a degree, by employing the comon mark of stres on all 
acented sylables : yet even this is never done ; could it have the 
generality of a precept, or be as definite for elementary instruc- 
tion, as the conspicuous division by bars ; nor would it include the 



510 RYTHMUS OF SPEECH. 

indication of pause, together with other points embraced by the 
system of Mr. Steele. 

One of the objects of a scientific institute is, to point out what 
is necesary in an art, even should it not be able to direct the exact 
maner of executing it; and perhaps no one who has atentively 
looked into Mr. Steele's notation will hesitate to aknowledgej it 
has set the subjects of acentuation and pause in an entirely new 
light before him. 

This notation is founded on a knowledge of the conventional 
acents of English words, and tho it would not inform a child what 
sylables are of long quantity, or emphatic ; nor, where the pauses 
are to be placed; it will enable a master, who knows how to order 
all these things in speech, to furnish his scholar with a visible 
ilustration of his task, and a rule for subsequent use. If a boy is 
taught by this method, he acquires a habit of atention to the sub- 
jects of acentuation and pause, that may be readily aplied, without 
the notation, in ordinary discourse. 

I have gladly embraced an oportunity to notice the kigenius 
originality of Mr. Steelej who was among the first to shriek-out at 
the incubus of ancient prosody, which had crouched so close on the 
bosom of his own, and of every modern language. The rythmical 
portion of his work while observative, is neither full nor systematic ; 
and his distinction of what he calls Poize, from the efect of quan- 
tity and stres, apears to me to be altogether notional and cloudy. 
Notwithstanding his philosophic turn for realy hearing speech, he 
seems, on the subject of his light and heavy Poize, to have falen 
almost into the mysticism of ' Occult causes/ Still I have taken 
a short and perhaps unsatisfactory view of this part of his esay, as 
prefatory to the few folowing remarks on the subject of rythmus.* 

The Rythmus of language is produced by a certain order of 
acent, quantity, and pause. Or in other words, a certain sucesion 
of sylables, having diferent degrees of stres, or of quantity ; and 
this sucesion being divided into portions by pauses, constitutes the 

* Mr. Steele first published his views, under the title cited in the introduc- 
tion to this esay. A few years afterwards he gave a second edition of his 
work, with the phrase of ' Prosodia Rationalist This last has very little adi- 
tion to the former print : and its Latin words serve only to obscure the simple 
explanation of his early English title. 



RYTHMUS OF SPEECH. 511 

agreeable impresion of the curent of speech, called Rythmus. 
And further, certain perceptible relations, between the various 
sounds of the elements and of sylables joined with the flow of that 
rythmus, serve both in prose and verse, to extend and to high ten 
its esthetic character. These relations regard an interesting branch 
of Rhetorical inquiry; embracing those delicate audible percep- 
tions, either agreeable or otherwise, of the similarity and contrast 
of elemental and sylabic sounds, which cannot have escaped the 
notice of a cultivated ear ; and which may have been instinctively 
observed, and practiced, in Greek and Roman Elocution, yet 
never described or reduced to system. And if what is here said 
may not be perceptible to every Reader ; some perhaps, may folow- 
up this hint on the subject of those graceful acompaniments of 
rythmus, which I am not at this time prepared to pursue. 

Two methods of aplying the alternate force and remision of stres, 
and the variations of quantity are employed in the construction of 
rythmus. One procedes by a regular repetition of the same order 
of impresions, in Versification. The other, in Prose, has no formal 
arangement of its strong and weak, or its long and short sylables. 
The system of the order of sylables in verse constitutes what is caled 
Prosody. This subject having been ably treated by authors, and* 
being beyond the design of this esay, we here pass it by, with the 
remark, that if English prosodists would listen to their own lan- 
guage, when they undertake to regulate it, and would scrutinize 
what the older gramarians have said upon the subject of Timej 
which, we have some causes for beleving, they themselves did not 
strictly analyzej their science would be more inteligible, and their 
rules of practice more useful to the student. 

The broad distinction between prose and verse consists in the 
more iregular sequence of acent and quantity in the former : still 
they seem to compromise their diferences to a certain degree, in 
their respective atempts at excelence. For the best poetic rythmus 
is that which admits ocasional, and wel-ordered deviations from 
the curent of acentuation ; these deviations however, not continu- 
ing long enough to destroy the general character of regularity ; the 
order returning before the ear has forgoten its previous impresion. 
Prose, on the other hand, is constantly showing the begining of a 
regular rythmus : but before any order of acent or quantity has 



512 EYTHMUS OF SPEECH. 

time to impres the ear with its measures the cros-purpose of a new 
series destroys the order of incipient verse. 

The sources of variety, beauty, and force, in rythmus may be 
learned from the folowing general view of its structure. 

In ordinary pronunciation there may be several sucesive mono- 
sylabic- words marked by the abrupt acentj the abruptnes necesa- 
rily producing a momentary pause between them : or there may be 
an acentecl sylable folowed by one or more, and not exceeding five 
unacented ; the average proportion being about one acented, to two 
or three unacented. From this it 'apears that the divisions, in- 
cluded between the vertical lines of Mr. Steele's notation, caled 
here, acentual sections, may consist of from one to five sylables, 
and with peculiar arangement, and care in pronunciation, perhaps 
of six. Consequently, if a rythmus were formed on the function 
of acent alone, a series of these diferently constituted sections, 
would furnish the ground-work for considerable variety. In the 
above example, the sections consist of from one to five sylables, 
for the third and fourth may be thrown together by omiting the 
bar and the pause, without ofending the ear ; and these sections 
being aranged in varied sucesion, is one of the causes of the agree- 
able rythmus of that sentence. 

Perhaps the Reader will now admitj the ear is as strongly 
atracted by quantity, as by stres. When, therefore, these two 
functions are combined, the means of variety are multiplied. In 
the folowing sentence, slightly altered from Gibbon, I have 
marked in italics those sylables which make an impresion by their 
quantity, and add dignity to the varied acentual rythmus. 

The masters of the fairest and most wealthy climates of the globe, turn'd 
with contempt from gloomy hills, asaiVd by the wintery tempest, from lakes 
conceal in mist, and from cold and lonely heaths, over which the deer of the 
forest were chased by a troop of naked barbarians. 

Besides the variety and impresivenes arising from stres and 
quantity, the rythmic efect may be further diversified by including 
one or more acentual sections within the boundary of pauses. If 
the useful economy of the term may be alowed, let us call the por- 
tions of discourse so formed, Pausal sections. They may consist 
of a single word ; and the structure of style, and ease of uterance, 



EYTHMUS OF SPEECH. 513 

rarely admit of their containing more than twenty sylables. In 
the folowing example the pausal sections are included between the 
upright lines, that the order and variety of the sucesion may be 
surveyed by the eye. The lines designate only the place of the 
pause in clear and impresive reading, without denoting its several 
durations. 

It is gone | that sensibility of principle | that chastity of honor | which 
felt a stain | like a wound | which inspired courage | whilst it mitigated 
ferocity | which enobled whatever it touched | and under which | vice it- 
self j lost | half its evil | by losing all its grosnes. | * 

The agreeable efect of variety in the pausal sections will perhaps 
be more remarkable, by contrasting it with the monotony of the 
antithetic style. The following sentence exhibits, not the art, but 
the artifice of rhetorical construction. 

"When I took the first survey of my undertaking | I found our speech | 
copious | without order | and energetic | without rules | wherever I turned 
my view | there was perplexity | to be disentangled | and confusion to be 
regulated | choice was to be made | out of boundles variety | without any 
established principle of selection | adulterations were to be detected | with- 
out any setled test of purity | and modes of expresion | to be rejected or 
receved | without the sufrages of any writers of classical reputation | or 
acknowledged authority. | 

Such measured divisions used ocasionaly may give variety to 
discourse ; but as a characteristic of style, they become tiresome 
to the earj and aiming to be forcible merely by verbal contrasts, 
often weaken the more important force of thot. There seems too, 
to be a want of dignity in this kind of rythmus ; and those who 
afect it, scarcely perceve how nearly they aproach to the principle 
of the ludicrous : for when its features are slightly surcharged by 
caricature, it realy becomes so. The principle is that of a re- 
semblance in sound, with a difference in meaning. The similarity 
in the number of words, together with the like places of their 
acents, and the equal count of sylables, under which it has some- 

* The maner in which lost, here forms by itself, a pausal section, is ex- 
emplified in Mr. Steele's method of notation : | Vice it | self 7 \ lost 7 \ half its \ 
| e vil. | A good reader would pronounce this clause, with emphasis on lost, 
and a pause before and after it: thus acording with Mr. Steele's principles of 
Acentual division. 



514 RYTHMUS OF SPEECH. 

times been the literary practice to set-forth the strongest antithesis 
in meaning, has not exactly the contrasted imagery of a pun, but 
it reminds me of it. 

The monotonous efect of a series of similar pausal sections, is 
conspicuous in the folowing example from the poems of Ossian. 
It is however, fair to remark, that as the extract has only two 
trisylabic words, and not one polysylable, this peculiarity must 
be taken into acount, with the other defects of its composition. 

And is the son of Semo falen ? | .mournful are Tura's walls. | Sorow dwells 
at Dunscai. | Thy spouse is left alone in her youth. | The son of thy love is 
alone ! | He shall come to Bragela, | and ask why she weeps ? | He shall lift 
his eyes to the wall, | and see his father's sword. | "Whose sword is that? | he 
will say. | The soul of his mother is sad. | "Who is that, | like the hart of the 
desert, [ in the murmur of his course ? | His eyes look wildly round | in search 
of his friend. | Conal | sonofColgar | where hast thou been | when the mighty 
fell ? | Did the seas of Cogorma roll round thee ? | Was the wind of the south 
in thy sails ? | The mighty have fallen in batle, | and thou wast not there. 
| Let none tell it in Selma, | nor in Morven's woody land. | Fingal will be 

mourn. 

The pausal sections are nearly all of equal length, and this cause, 
together with the frequent ocurence of the cadence, produces the 
wearisome character of its very com on language, for it does not 
deserve the name of rythmus. Doctor Johnson once saidj many 
men, and women, and children in Britain, could write such poems 
as those ascribed to Ossian. I have too many agreeable and grate- 
ful recolections of Scotland, to quarel with her partiality, if she 
has any, on this point : but surely, there is not a Roscius, who can 
read them. We have a vast fund for variety, in the constituents 
of speech ; but we may doubt their suficiency to meet the demands 
of this rhetorical rigidity, without transgresing the rules of a just 
and expresive intonation. Indeed, the pasage, like many others by 
beter poets, cannot be read to the satisfaction of a discerning ear. 

Let us compare the preceding extract, with the first few lines of 
Burke's episode on the Queen of France ; which in elegance, variety, 
and impresivenes of mere rythmus, and exclusive of some hyper- 
bole, and descriptive ostentation, is not surpased in the English 
language. 

That both the acentual and the pausal sections may be graph- 



RYTHMUS OF SPEECH. 515 

icaly made, they are here presented under Mr. Steele's notation, 
omiting the symbols for the light and heavy acent. The acentual 
sections are marked by upright bars, the pausal, by the numeral 
seven. 

| 7 It is | now | sixteen or | seventeen | years | 7 since I | saw the queen 
of | France, 7 | then the | Dauphines, | 7 at Ver | sailles : | 7 7 | 7 and 
| surely | never | lighted on this | orh, ] 7 which she | hardly | seemed 
to | touch, 7 | 7 a | more de | lightful | vision. | 7 7 | 7 7 j 7 I | saw her | 
| just a | bove the ho | rizon, | 7 7 | decorating and | cheering | 7 the | 
elevated | sphere | 7 she | just be | gan to | move in; | 7 7 | glitering | 
7 like the | morning | star ; | 7 7 | full of | life, 7 | 7 and | splendor, | 7 and 

I j°y- I 

I Oh ! | what a | revo | lution ! | 7 7 | 7 and | what a | heart 7 | must I | 
| have, | 7 to con | template | 7 with | out e | motion, | that 7 | 7 ele | vation | 
| 7 and | that 7 | fall, j 

The agreeable effect of this rythmus may be traced to the folow- 
ing causes. 

First. The alphabetic elements are varied ; and except the sim- 
ilarity of sound in teen and Queen, and in the words lighted and 
delightful, cheering and sphere, they do not press upon each other. 

Second. The words have from one to four sylables ; and these 
are finely alternated with each other. The acentual sections vary 
from one to five sylables in extent. 

Third. The Pausal sections consist of from two sylables to ten; 
and their diferent lengths are intermingled in sucesion. 

Fourth. The efect is still further varied, by an ocasional coin- 
cidence of the temporal acent with that of stres : and the dignity 
and force of the phraseology is hightened, by the ocurrence of these 
long sylabic quantities, at the several pauses, in the wordsj years, 
'Versailles, orb, ho?*izon, sphere, move, star, joy, and fall. 

Fifth. The order of the rythmus has just enough regularity to 
produce the smooth efect of verse, without alowing the reader to 
anticipate a systematic prosodial-measure. 

The only exception to be made to the comendation of this ex- 
tract, is produced by the consecutive acents at its close. A cadence, 
with its last two sylables strongly accented, if not designed for 
some extraordinary case of expresion, or for variety in a series of 
short sentences, or if its harshnes is not modified by some extended 



516 KYTHMUS OF SPEECH. 

quantity on an indefinite quantity, is always, to me at least, both 
awkward and unmanageable. 

Dionysius of Halicarnassus, in a summary of the constituents 
of an elegant Elocution, quoted in a Note to our seventh section, 
describes Bythmus, as suporting or l sustaining the voice ; ' and the 
metaphor is just. For a wel-marked arangement of the varying 
stres and quantity of sylables, does sustain the voice, by keeping 
it from that careles stagering of speech, if I may so call it, and 
from that runing of words against each other, which by crosing, 
and aresting the easy step of language, confuses and thwarts the 
expectation of both the ear and the mind. The Ancients, with 
whom Writing was an Esthetic Art, considered^ without rythmus, 
there could be no grace and dignity of style, whether in its lighter 
or its graver construction : and we learn, that at the earliest period, 
Poetry in embodying the mental perceptions of beauty and of 
grandeur, assumed to itself a coresponding expresion, on the 
flowing and graceful measure of Verse. All this rare work how- 
ever, was done by those, who if they did not, from the patience 
and thot with which they wrote, always beg their bread, did very 
often little more than earn it. Too many, who now use the hasty 
and profitable tongue and pen, have not time to measure for the 
intelect, and ear, what they manufacture for the market. The 
regular order of Meter that can be counted on the fingers, may for 
comon purposes seem to require but little instruction. The Kyth- 
mus of Prose must be studied by the rules of a flowing and efective 
variety, as the Ancients studied it. It is therefore, at present, 
neglected : and we are not without Critics, of such indolent or 
untunable ear, as to suposej we ought to write, even in the brief 
and simple words of scientific description, with the disjointed 
plainess of common speech ; and that to satisfy a cultivated taste 
and reflection, by the varied acentual force, quantity, and pause of 
a well-adjusted rythmus, is to be stilted and ostentatious : as the 
old Elocutionists say, that to read by the principles and rules of 
analytic knowledge, is to be Theatric, and formal. 

The preceding examples of rythmus ilustrate its structure and 
efects in prose composition of elevated character. But there is no 
saying to what inferior level of popular idiom, language may de- 
scend with dignified safety, when suported by the confident wings 



FAULTS OF READERS. 517 

of a gliding acent and quantity, and the upholding energy of pasion 
and of thot. 

From the pen of a person of fine rythmic perception, even a 
leter of busines, with its enumeration of particulars, may flow 
with graceful variety, and terminate with decisive satisfaction to 
the ear ; for the Grecian principle of rythmus sustaining the voice 
in discourse, aplies not more to maintaining a rhetorical dignity, 
than to preserving comon language from a loose and unmeasured 
rudenes. 

It is unecesary to go into a further detail on the subject of 
rythmus. Much might be said in ilustration of its powers and 
beauties, as existing both in the curent of discourse and in the 
conspicuous place of the pause. But we leave this to the Rheto- 
ricians. 



SECTION LI. 

Of the Faults of Readers. 

It is a prevailing opinion, that persons who speak their own 
states of mind, in social intercourse, always speak properly ; and 
that transfering this l natural nianer' as it is caled, to formal read- 
ing, must insure this required natural-propriety. 

This rule has arisen from ignorance of the functions which 
constitute the beauties and deformities of speech. Without a 
knowledge of causes and efects, on these points, teachers have been 
obliged to refer to the spontaneous eforts of the voice, as the only 
asistant means of instruction. Seting aside here, what we might 
insist on, that no one should pretend to say, what the right or 
natural maner is, before he knows the principles that make it so ; 
we will admitj the natural maner, or any body's maner, or rather 
no maner at allj from our being acustomed to it, and having, it 
may be, a felow-feeling with its faults, is less exceptionable than 
the first atempts of the pupil in reading ; still the faults of ordi- 
nary conversation are similar to those of reading, tho they are less 



518 FAULTS OF READERS. 

aparent. Perhaps the comon opinion is grounded on a belief, that 
a just execution must necesarily folow a full perception of the 
thot, and pasion of discourse ; for these are suposed to acompany 
coloquial speech. No one can read corectly or with elegance, if he 
does not both perceve and ' feel, ' as it is caled, what he uters ; but 
these are not exclusively the means of suces. 

There must be knowledge, derived from peeping behind the 
curtain of actual vocal deformity still hanging before the just and 
beautiful laws of speech ; and there must be an organic faculty, 
well prepared in the school of those laws, for the representation 
of thot and pasion. Were it truej this pretended natural maner 
represents the proper system of vocal expresion, we would no more 
require an art of elocution, than an Art of Breathing : and the 
whole world, in Reading and Speaking, as in the act of respiration, 
would always acomplish its purposes, with a like instinctive per- 
fection. Yet far from uniformity, we find wide and innmerable 
diferences, in what, with individuals and schools, pass for the 
proprieties, as well as in what are acknowledged faults of speech. 
The Elocutionist's natural maner is not therefore, the original 
ordination of the voice. It would seem, that in the early and 
unknown history of progresive man, he must, from the perversity 
atendant on his ignorance, have learned to Think, Speak, Act, 
Govern, and to be Governed viciously, before he had learned to 
think, speak, act, govern, and to be governed wisely and well. 
Man's whole executive purposes are directed by his thots and 
pasionsj the same agents that direct his speech : and, far as history, 
and well-grounded conclusions inform us, the just designs of 
Nature, in his moral, religious, political, and vocal condition, were 
found to be already crosed, or perverted, when he first began to 
look into her laws, and to turn an eye of philosophic inquiry and 
comparison, on himself. 

The self-prompted eforts of speech do exhibit in some instances, 
proprieties of emphasis and intonation ; but these proprieties, like 
every purposed act without its rule, being but the ocasional result 
of a narow design, cannot have a generality necesary for a direc- 
tive system of elocution ; and will be very far from satisfactory to 
the ear of a refined and educated taste. 

There may likewise be a wide diference, between the capability 



FAULTS OF READERS. 519 

of a voice in its coloquial use, and of the same voice when exerted 
in a formal atempt to read. Mr. Rice, in his ' Introduction to 
the Art of Reading/ refers to a person, who had been known to 
speak with great energy and propriety, as it was presumed, those 
very words, which, being shown to him in writing or print, he 
was able, only after repeated endeavors, to pronounce in the pre- 
cise 'tone' and maner in which he had previously utered them. 
Suposing he did speak with propriety, which the art has never 
yet furnished the proper means for knowingj there seems, in the 
case, to have been no want of a thotive and pasionative state of 
mind, nor of flexibility in the voice; and it must have been 
among those exceptions, in which the natural laws of expresion 
prevail. But when discourse, denoting either of these states, is 
read, even by its author, the ocupation of the eye distracts his 
atention from his state of mindj or permits it to be fully per- 
ceved, only when directed to a single point. If the meaning is to 
be gathered from several words, or a whole sentence, the necesary 
foreruning and retrospection of the eye, render the proper manage- 
ment of the voice impracticable to those who have not, by long 
exercise in the art of reading, acquired a facility in catching the 
thot and pasion of discourse, and an almost involuntary habit of 
conecting with them, the proper form of vocal expresion. If this 
is true of one who reads what he has before spoken wellj more 
remarkably must it aply, in reading without preparation the dis- 
course of another. 

Whatever may be the cause of the dificulty of reading-wellj 
faults of all degrees and kinds do prevail in the art. Having 
therefore prepared the way for a history of these faults, by de- 
scribing what apears to be a precise and elegant use of the con- 
stituents of speech, I shall point out the most comon deviations 
from the principles, on which I have presumed to found our 
system of Propriety and Taste. 

If we undertake to measure an art by its rules, and it is foolish 
to atempt it without them, we must cary with our censure, some 
knowledge of the ways and means of its perfection. Erors are 
in all cases, contrasts to truth; and in elocution, they are only 
the misemployment of those vocal constituents, which in their 
proper forms and uses, produce both the instinctive and conven- 



520 FAULTS OF READERS. 

tional method of just and elegant speech : for some of the finest 
colors of the art, even when well and truly laid-on, are diped 
from the same sources as its faults. Whoever, with pretensions 
to taste, declares his perception of blemishes in an art, without 
having at the same time, some rule for its beauty, speaks as the 
dupe of authority, or with ignorance both of his subject and of. 
himself. Let us then try to perform these inseparable duties, by 
giving the outline of a just and elegant elocution, with a particular 
account of its faults. 

While investigating the phenomena, and regarding the uses of 
speech, I have always kept in view the purest and most elevated 
designs of taste. It will be little more than recapitulation there- 
fore to say 3 the faultles reader should have at comand the various 
forms of vocality from the full laryngeal bass of the orotund, to 
the lighter and lip-issuing sound of daily conversation. He should 
give distinctly that pronunciation of single elements and their 
agregates, both as to quantity and acent, which acords with the 
habitual perceptions of his audience. His plain melody should be 
diatonic, and varied in radical pitch beyond discoverable monotony. 
His simple concrete should be equable in the rise, and diminution 
of its vanish. His tremor should be under full comand for oca- 
sions of grief and exultation. Knowledge and taste must have 
fixed the places of emphasis, and its various forms and degrees 
have aforded the means for a varied and expresive aplication of 
them. He should be able to prolong his voice on every extent 
of quantity in the wave, and in every concrete interval of the 
rising and the faling scale. He must have learned to put off 
from the dignified ocasions of reading, everything like that cant- 
ing or afected intonation, which the artful courtesies and sacri- 
ficing servilities of life too often confirm into habit ; and to avoid 
in his interogatives the keennes and exceses of the vulgar tongue. 
He should have for this, as for every other Esthetic Art, a deli- 
cate sense of the Sublime, the Graceful, and the Ridiculous. A 
quick perception of the last is absolutely necesary, to guard the 
exalted works of taste, from an acidental ocurence of its causes. 

It may perhaps be considered presumptuous, to propose rules of 
taste and criticism in the Art of speaking. Before the analytic 
development of speech, this could not have been done ; and the 



FAULTS OF READERS. 521 

atempt would have been equaly the act of ignorance, and foly, the 
very causes of presumption. We have now ascertained the con- 
stituents of vocal expresion, sufficiently at least, to advance some 
steps towards a system ; and it seemed to be no undue anticipation 
of what must hereafter form a great purpose in the schools of elo- 
cution, to have pointed-out a use of these constituents, that may 
satisfy the cultivated ear. 

If however, any ascribed presumption should require apology, 
or justification, let me here say a word on the system I have oferedj 
and on the maner and means of its production. 

In embracing the oportunity of investigating the subject of the 
human voice, which others equaly, and perhaps beter qualified 
had sufered to pass-by, I brought to the inquiry some instinctive 
facility of ear, and some acquired knowledge of the science and 
practice of music. On taking-up the subject of the concrete 
movement, where the Ancients had left itj and thereupon tracing 
an identity between certain constituent functions of speech, and of 
music j the train of investigation soon led to a discovery, that the 
individual vocal constituents of speech, like those of music, are 
comparatively few. This at once unfolded the cause of the mys- 
tery ; for the delusions of that mystery were the. result of a belief 
either in the inscrutable character of the constituents of intonation, 
or in the unresolvable complexity of their agregates; and this 
unquestioned belief had deafened all perception of their individu- 
ality. On resolving these complicated agregates into distinguish- 
able species and individualsj it brought their asignable number and 
forms within the discriminative power of observation. The greatest 
dificulty was now overcome ; for by an unobscured perception of 
the disentangled individual, it was easy to make out the relation- 
ship between a state of mind, and its vocal sign. With this 
knowledge, obtained by my own experimental ilustration, I turned 
to the uncorupted vocal instincts of children and of sub-animals j 
to observe the particular constituents of pasionate expresion; 
and then to comon life, as well as to the eminent elocution of 
the Stage j to compare the ordained constituents of both thot and 
pasion with their conventional usages in speech. The power of 
tracing the individual constituents, and of recognizing their single 
and combined efects, brot me to the belief, that the system here 
34 



522 FAULTS OF READERS. 

proposed has its Origin and its Confirmation in Nature ; and is 
therefore well adapted, by its analysis, to gratify the lover of truth 3 
and by the practical uses founded upon it, to contribute to the 
pleasures of an enlightened taste. 

In developing this system of Eficient causation, I was led to 
perceve a wise conformity of the vocal means, to the expresive 
ends of speech ; and to remark therein, at least the consistency of 
the system, if I did not dare to draw from the suposition of its 
Final causes, any confirmative evidence of its truth. In our pre- 
ceding history, a broad and important distinction is made between 
the vocal functions, representing simple thot, and those expresive 
of pasion. To one division, we aloted the second and its plain 
diatonic melody. To the other, the semitone, with the wider in- 
tervals and waves : manifest diferences in the vocal means, being 
definitely acomodated to manifest diferences between the thotive 
and pasionative states of mind. On the ground of this apropri- 
ation of diferent means to a diferent end, it is conclusive, that the 
rule of rules, nowhere, and never forgoten by Naturej this Rule 
of Fitnesj being unknown, or disregarded, or only rarely perceved 
in the use of intonation, must be constantly violated by speakers : 
that a current melody of thirds, or fifths, or wider waves, must 
counteudct the Final Cause of Nature, in alotting a diferent vocal 
expresion respectively to pasion and to thot ; confound her intended 
contradistinctions ; prevent the repose of the ear on the unim- 
pasioned diatonic ; and wear out its excitability to the emphatic 
power of wider intervals, when required for ocasional purposes of 
vivid expresion. 

There is another consideration, to justify the establishment of a 
system of some kind, if it should not plead for the one which is 
ofered here. When the several voices of thot and of pasion are 
individualy distinguishable, the precision of their use must be- 
come an object of atention and criticism with an audience ; and 
under an admited rule, their employment will be more uniform, 
and therefore more clear and impresive. If we vary and confound 
the apropriate meaning of the vocal signs, even when they are 
joined with conventional language, we may come in time to de- 
stroy, and must always weaken, the character and force of those 
signs. If we constantly whine in the chromatic melody, or cry 



FAULTS OF HEADERS. 523 

out emphaticaly in the wider intervals and waves, to no purpose 
of complaint or surprise, we shall in vain seek for sympathy, when 
the wolf of expresion in reality seizes upon us. 

In looking for a Rule of excelence in the art of elocution, we 
are always refered, as in the other fine arts, to Nature. But Na- 
ture with her laws concealed from the whole mass of Mystagogues 
and Imitators, is when shut-out from the light of analysis, an un- 
asignable patern ; and seems here, as in so many other cases, to be 
no more than the omniform parent of sectarian opinion ; and like 
the changeable features of Liberty with the patriot, of Experience 
with the physician, Right with the moralist, and of Orthodoxy 
with the bigotj shows as many faces as there are self-deceving 
tongues that take her name in vain. If nature, the deformed in- 
stinct of human nature, I mean, is to be the rule, it can be only 
by the individual instances of excelence she produces : if her ex- 
celencies are scatered over the species, it is Art that must ordain 
this canon, by colecting them into one faultles example. And 
where is the instance in this corupted nature, worthy of imitation ? 
Is it to be found in the drawl of the slothful ? In the snapish 
stres of the petulant ? The short quantity and precipitate time of 
the frivolous ? In the continued diatonic of the saturnine ? Or 
the eternal whine of the unhappy ? Is it in the canting drift of 
the pasion-masking hypocrite ; or in the voice of those morbid 
superlatives which live upon exageration ? Shall we look for it 
in the daily-changing and mincing afectations of the Fashionable- 
Foolish ; or in the thousand contrarieties of National acent, quan- 
tity, and intonation, yet each in pride and ignorance, self-aright ? 
Shall we find this nature's paragon, in the chaterings of the great 
market of life, that hurries over its melody, denies itself the repose 
of the cadence, and in uproar after rank and power, and biding 
for its bargains of ofice or notoriety, strains itself to its hoarsest 
note ? 

These are the individual instances of vocal deformity presented 
by Nature, with sacrilege so called, and daily sufered to pass with- 
out remark, because we are engaged at the moment with other 
purposesj and which we perceve only when the voice itself as a 
subject of taste, is the exclusive object of reflective and discrimi- 
nating atention. 



524 FAULTS OF READERS. 

Altho a Compensating Nature, still holding her regards over 
the wayward erors of the human voice, may not, under its cor- 
uptions, deign to show us a single instance of the fitnes and beauty 
of her lawsj she has, as an indication of her means for perfecting 
the vocal powers of the individual, difused thruout the species, all 
the constituents of that perfection. A description of the true char- 
acter and wise design of these constituents, and the gathering-in of 
their scatered proprieties and beauties, furnish the full and choicest 
pattern of Imitable-Nature ; which, reduced to an orderly system 
of precept and example, must hereafter constitute the proper and 
elegant Art of Elocution. 

The Canon, so called, of statuary in Greece, which represented 
no singly-existing form, but which was said to contain within the 
Rule of its Design, all the master-principles of the Artj was the 
deliberate work of Observation, Time, and careful Experiment 
on the Eye, in the very method of reflective and discriminating 
Selection, we here claim for Elocution ; and was finished at last, 
by Polycletus, only after previous ages of sucesive improvement. 
If an individual of nature might be taken as a model in the arts, 
we should not at this late day be so often obliged to listen to bad 
readers ; nor to hear such clashing opinions, upon those who pass 
for the best. The productions of taste would have forerun a 
present needed cultivation; and in reverse of the tedious growth 
of centuries, would like those goodly trees in the garden of Eden, 
have been ripe at their planting. 

The masters in Elocution, not perceving, that Speaking-well is 
One, in the beautiful Sisterhood of the Esthetic Arts, and not 
drawing from a comon fund of colected principles, the precepts 
that might be aplicable to their ownj have sometimes varied their 
old and imperfect rule of teaching by Imitation, to something like 
the system of nature, as they think, by requiring their pupil, not 
to imitate another, but figuratively as it were, to imitate himself. 
Supose yourself, says the Master, to be delivering the meaning of 
an author as if it is your own. 

Such a direction, in asuming to be the rule for a just and efective 
elocution, only requires a pupil to speak as he pleases, or as his 
own particular mind prompts him ; for by the direction, he is to 
make the author's meaning his own ; but having, as implied by 



FAULTS OF READERS. 525 

the necesity of the direction, no previous rule, he is left to uter 
them only as he pleases by an asumed rule of his own. At best 
then, under this direction, a class of a thousand pupils, in seeking 
a precept for the suposed exact meaning, would discoverj there 
must be a thousand diferent precepts ; since each must speak by 
his own. It is then an unnecesary direction of an unthinking 
master. For no one can read well, except he does spontaneously 
read as if the meaning were his own : showing the superfluity at 
least of directing him to make it his own, in order to read well. 
And again, the pupil who cannot so far know an author's mind, as 
to be able to represent it from writen description, would be very 
likely to mistake it under his master's vague direction, that he 
must try to make it his own. Let us however, suposej this rule 
of Self-Imitation might serve for comonplace thot, on everyday 
ocasions. 

On the other hand, supose the art of reading to be employed in 
representing the strictest truth and propriety of dramatic character, 
or the most delicate picturing by the higher poetry. How, with 
the great Crowd of mankind, will the rule of substitution meet 
this case ? I have more than once, seen among Aspirants of the 
Stage, the pitiable result of what was suposed to be a representa- 
tion of the Truth of Nature, by this afecting to become identical 
with their enacted Character, in asuming the thot of another as 
their own ; a representation of Nature, without a knowledge of 
her constitution and laws ; a constitution, coeval with the period 
of human progres into speech. 

All the Fine Arts are esentialy Artsj each the ofspring of a 
fruitful aliance between Knowledge and intelectual facility : the 
high acomplishmentof the work by the Artist, and the reflective 
enjoyment of its truth and beauty by the Votary, being purely the 
result of scrutinizing perception, extensive comparison, enlightened 
choice, and a harmonized use of the scatered facts and rules of 
propriety, unity, expresion, grandeur and grace. 

Many of the faults of speakers arise from their being taught 
by imitation alone. As long as there has been a history of the 
Stage, so long, Actors have been clased in the school of some 
Preceding, or Cotemporary master. But as there is always one, 
who by chance or by merit is the Leader of the 4ustrumj ? and 



526 FAULTS OF READERS. 

even five years is a long life for fashionable fame^ it generaly 
hapens that his faults may for the time, be recognized among a 
crowd of pupils and imitators. From the want of some definite 
corective, the bad reading of a Pulpit sometimes infects a whole 
class of studentsj who circumscribe the active benefits of their 
master's solemn example by taking-up his sinful elocution. 

It may be saidj If we establish a system of principles, all 
readers must be of one school, and this will be equivalent to imi- 
tation. There would be one school ; a school of acknowledged 
and permanent precept, with a likenes in its excelence, not in its 
defects. Many actors who difer from each other in their faults, 
yet give ocasional short sentences with similar propriety, without 
exciting a remark on that similarity; for propriety is here, the 
fitnes of truth. It is only upon some imitated outrage of uter- 
ance, that in a moment, the whispered name of a prototype is heard 
in twenty parts of a theater. Serious imitations of distinguished 
Actors and Speakers, like gay mimicries of them, are generaly 
made on peculiar pronunciation, monotony, unpleasant quality of 
voice, peculiar forms of melody, whining, false cadence, or no 
cadence at all, and precipitate and unaccountable transitions.* 

But, enough of unsatisfactory argument on this subject. The 

* Strange, indeed ! that such faults should be found among distinguished 
Actors and Speakers. But I write from observation ; having heard them all. 

The celebrated 3 who had a grating and untunable vocality, and 

whose elocution as I recolect it, was afected and monotonous, in a formal 
melody of wider intervals and waves, with an ocasional minor third in em- 
phatic placesj would, after some of the Older Poets, pronounce when nobody 
else did, the plural of ache (ach-es) as two sylables, to the unseasonable meri- 
ment of those who heard him. The use of the minor third however, was not 
peculiar to him, for it seems to be a vocal tradition, still kept up among the 
English. The Quakers, particularly their women, in public preaching, employ 
it to an extravagant degree ; and, from the incorigible character of all sectari- 
anism, probably had it in the time of Fox; whose folowers may have derived 
it thro the earlier Protestants, from some awkward imitation of chanting, in 
the Catholic-service. Be this as it may, it is not uncomon, in private life, 
even with women of the higher classes, in England ; and very comon on the 
Stage. We often hear it in Actors as well as Actreses who come over to us. 
We had some years ago, one of the later, whose intonation was almost a 
melody of minor thirds. As long as she lasted, it was thot very fine ; and 
was imitated by many American theatric Misses. Its afectation was so re- 
markable, that it was a subject of mimicry for every shop-girl with a good 
ear 



FAULTS OF READERS. 527 

art of Elocution has never yet, by system or rule, reached that 
consumation, which might be caled, the Canonical Beauty of 
Speech. The eorupted instinct of individuals, has been for each, 
the universal guide ; and the best management of the voice has, 
under so poor a master, falen-short of an efective means for the 
highest oral excelence of an ordained Elocution : while the comon 
herd of pretenders aford both shocking and endles examples of 
deformity and eror. 

It is not the intention here, to speak of the constitutional de- 
formities of the voice. It is dificult however, to draw a line of 
distinction on this subject. Too many of the wilful vices of life, 
under self-delusion, pass for misfortunes : and it can scarcely be 
made a question, whether the impudent display of even natural fail- 
ings should not shut-out the subject from indulgent comiseration. 

Three points are of leading importance to a speaker: and if 
deficiencies therein are not to be caled misfortunes, we may rank 
them as great and generic faults. I mean the defects of the Mind, 
of the Ear, and of Industry. 

Speech is intended to be the sign of every variety of thot and 
pasion. If therefore the mind of a scholar be not raised to that 
generality of condition, w T hich can asume all the characters of ex- 
presion, he will in vain aspire to great eminence in the art. If 
his mind is endued only with the diplomatic virtue of unrufled 
caution ; if it is of that character which compliments its own 
dulnes by caling energy, violence^ and drawls-out in reprobation 
at the vivid language of truth ; if all its busy goings are just 
around the little circle of its own selfish schemes ; if it has yet 
to know itself, as only a compound of thot, and pasion ; and to 
hear, without being convinced, that suces in every art is not more 
indebted to the plans of sagacious thot, than to the perseverance 
of thotful pasion ; if the mind, I repeat it, is of such a cast, its 
posesor may with the resources of elementary knowledge, and 
methodj atain a certain proficiency in the art, may save himself 
from its striking faults, and probably satisfy his own uncircum- 
spect perception ; but he can never reach the highest acomplish- 
ment in elocution. 

In speaking of the mental requisites for good reading, we must 
not overlook our frequent neglect to discriminate between a merely 



528 FAULTS OF READERS. 

forcible, and a delicate state of mind. The latter makes the full 
and finished Actor; and it is unfortunate for his art, that en- 
dowments, which under proper cultivation insure suces, are gen- 
eraly united with a modesty that retires from the places and oca- 
sions for displaying its merits : the former in reaching no more 
than the coarse energy of the pasions, is able to figure on the 
Stage, only as the outrageous Herod, the brazen Beatrice, and the 
Buffoon. 

The mind, with its comprehensive and refined discriminations, 
must furnish the design of elocution ; the ear must watch over 
the lines and coloring of its expresion. 

The ability to measure nicely the time, force, and pitch of 
sounds, is indispensable to the higher excelencies of speech. It 
is imposible to say how much of the musical ear, properly so 
caled, is the result of cultivation. There is however a wide difer- 
ence even in the earliest aptitudes of this sense; and granting 
the means of improvement derived from analysis will hereafter 
greatly increase the proportional number of good readers, and 
produce something like an equality among themj still the pos- 
ession of a musical ear must, with other requisites, always give a 
superiority. 

I have more than once in this essay, urged the importance of 
Industry, the third general means for suces. Neglect on this 
point may be considered as an egregious fault in a speaker ; and 
it certainly is the most culpable. It is here placed on high 
ground, along with mental susceptibility and delicacy of ear, those 
esentials which have been designated by the indefinite term 
' genius/ In vain will the mind furnish its finest perceptions, or 
the ear be ready with its measurements, if the tongue should not 
contribute its persevering industry. By a figure of speech that 
took a part for the whole of the senses, a hapy penalty upon 
mankind, as it was early writen, doomed the taste to be gratified 
by the sweat of the brow : the ear can receve its full delight in 
Elocution, only by the long labor of the voice. 

The faults of speakers are of endles variety : but if I have told 
the whole truth, they embrace no mode or form of voice, here un- 
named. It seems as if Nature had asumed, in her adjusted system 
of speech, all its available signs. The worldly tongue, with his 



FAULTS OF EEADEES. 529 

corupting habit, in deforming this all-perfect endowment, makes 
no adition to its constituents, but performs his part in human 
eror, by misplacing them. In the present history of the faults of 
speech, we may therefore pursue something like the order, more 
than once, given to our subject. 

The five general heads, under which w T e considered the Modes 
of the voice, are Vocality, Time, Force, Abruptness, and Pitch. 

Of Faults in Vocality. This subject is so well known, both in 
the Art, and in comon criticism, that it is unecesary to be partic- 
ular upon it. Harshnes or rufnes is one of the disagreeable forms 
of the voice. The nasal is still more ofensive. Shrilnes may 
rather be called a Vocality than a state of Pitch. It wants dig- 
nity, seems like a mockery of the voice, and while heard remotely, 
and drawing atention, it is with the atraction of a caricature. The 
huskines of aspiration is more apt to be united with the orotund. 
It may not diminish the gravity and sober grandeur of this voice, 
but it obscures the clearnes of its vocality. 

The falsete is sometimes used in the curent of speech. We hear 
persons on the stage, in the senate, the fervent pulpit, and on the 
scafold of the demagogue, who ofend with the falsete only oca- 
sionaly, by the melody breaking from the natural voice, on a 
single sylable. Every speaker has a falsete ; and the skilful can 
always guard against its improper use. As a fault, it results 
either from the limited compas of the natural voice, or from a de- 
fect of ear in the speaker ; for not having an acurate perception 
of his aproach to it, he is unable to avoid the evil, by a ready 
descent of intonation. 

The falsete is common in the voices of women. It has with 
them a plaintive character ; and the melody at this high pitch is 
apt to be monotonous. 

Of Faults in Time. It is not meant to treat here, of what is caled 
reading too fast or too slow. There is nothing new to be said on 
this point. But we who speak English are said, by the report of 
the compilers of Greek and of Latin gramars, to know nothing of 
Quantity, and to have none in our language. That bad readers, 
and persons who will not learn their own tongue may know 
nothing of its quantity, is readily granted; still, that it is an 
esential part of every language, and the neglect of it, a source of 



530 FAULTS OF EEADEKS. 

many faults in ours, must be admitted by those who know the 
efect of sylabic time, and the proper use of the voice. 

Quantity, as a fault, may be too long or too short. When 
states of mind requiring short time, such as gayety and anger, are 
expresed by long quantity, it produces the vice of Drawling. The 
excessive quantity of this drawling may be either on a wave of 
the second, or an equal or unequal wave of wider intervals, or on 
the note of Song. 

When deliberate or solemn discourse is huried over in a short 
sylabic quantity, the fault is no less apparent and ofensive. This 
defect in reading is by far the most comon; and it has been said, 
more than once, in this esay, because it is well to rouze the Eng- 
lish ear to this subject, that the comand over time in the pure and 
equable concrete of speech, is found only in speakers of fervent 
temperament and long experience. Such persons instinctively 
acquire the use of extended quantity : as on long sylables, most of 
their earnest expression is efected. It is from ignorance of this 
fact, that some speakers, neglecting the variety and smoothnes of 
the temporal emphasis, give prominence to important words only 
by the hamering of acent. 

Of Faults in Force. The misaplication of the degrees of the 
piano and the forte, in the general curent of discourse is suficiently 
obvious. But the forms of stres, on diferent parts of the concrete, 
have never been observed, and consequently, have never been noted 
as a fault. 

Many speakers, from a dificulty in comanding variations of 
quantity, execute most of their emphasis in the form of force ; yet 
even in this aparently simple efort, they are not free from faults. 
Some persons, after the maner of the Irish, employ the vanishing 
stress on all emphatic sylables. This has its meaning in expresion, 
but it is misplaced, except on the ocasions formerly pointed out. 
A want of the sharp and abrupt character of the radical is not an 
uncomon fault. It ocurs generaly in the dull and indolent : for 
nothing shows so clearly an elastic temper in the voice, as the 
ability to sudenly explode this initial stres. On the other hand it 
is a more frequent fault, to over-stres the acentcd sylable, by that 
hamering of the voice, which destroys the dignity of deliberate 
intonation. This over-stres does most violence to the solemn ex- 



FAULTS OF READERS. 531 

presion, apropriate to many parts of the Church -service : for here 
the waves of the second, on indefinite quantities, whether acented 
or notj including by license, even a slight extension of the shortest 
sylablesj should with cautious management, and not unlike the 
1 leaning note ' of song, be caried by a blending quantity from con- 
crete to concrete, in a reverentive drift of deliberate dignity ; the 
necesary emphasis being made by a comparative exces of quantity, 
with the impresive and graceful gliding of the median stres. 

It is not my intention to notice the faults of emphatic stres, in 
the comon meaning of the term. They all resolve into a want of 
true aprehension on the part of the reader. In ignorance of other 
constituents of an enlarged and definite elocution, which our pres- 
ent inquiry has taught us to apreciate and to recomend, this well 
known subject of stres-laying emphasis, has always been considered 
of the first importance in the art ; and unfortunately in the school 
of imitation, it has under the critical term Reading, restrictively 
asumed, at least a nominal superiority over the other modes of 
speech. 'How admirably she reads / said an idle critic, of an 
actres, who, with perhaps a proper emphasis of Force, was de- 
forming her uterance, by every fault of Time and Intonation. 
The critic was one of those who having neither knowledge nor 
docility, deserved neither argument nor corection. Emphasis of 
stres, being almost the only branch of elocution in which there is 
an aproach towards a practical rule, this single function, under an 
ignorance of other modes of emphatic distinction, has, by a figure 
of speech grounded on its real importance, been asumed in the 
limited nomenclature of criticism, as almost the sole esential of 
the art. Even Mr. Kemble, whose eulogy should have been 
founded on whatever other merits he may have posesed, made, if 
we have not been misinformed, the first stir of his fame, by a new 
' reading/ or a new discriminative stres, in a particular scene of 
Hamlet. Under this view, it would folow, that he who properly 
aplies the emphasis of force, in the Art of Reading, acomplishes 
all its purpose ; he reads, or he acentuates well. 

We have awarded to the emphasis of force its due, but not its 
undue degree of consequence ; and it may be hereafter admited, 
that much of the contention about certain unimportant points of 
this stres-laying emphasis, and of pause, has arisen from critics 



532 FAULTS OF EEADEES. 

finding very little else of the vast compas of speech, on which they 
were able to form for themselves a determinate opinion. When, 
under a scientific institute of elocution, there will be more im- 
portant maters to study, and delight in, it may perhaps be foundj 
much of this trifling lore of italic notation, now serving to keep 
up comonplace contention in a daily gazette, will be quite over- 
looked, in the high court of philosophic criticism.* 

We do not speak of the faults of pronunciation, depending on 

* Some one, of those who like to make busines in an art, rather than to do 
it, has raised a question whether the Mowing lines from Macbeth, should be 
read with an acent and a pause at baners or at walls : 

Mac. Hang out our baners on the outward walls 
The cry is still, They come. 

To those whose elocution consists in such ridles, we propose the folowing, 
from Goldsmith : 

A man he was, to all the country dear, 
And pasing rich with forty pounds a year. 

Let them gues variously, or sharply dispute, upon the question of aplying 
an emphasis on pasing, or on rich ; thereby to determine either that the good 
Village Parson was pasing or superlatively rich, with his forty pounds ; or that 
he pased among his parishioners, as only very well-off in the world. 

I some time ago noticed the folowing punctuation, in one of those wandering 
Actors known as Stars. 

I'll call thee Hamlet, 
King, Father ; Eoyal Dane O answer me. 

Perhaps, after writing the words King and Father, the Poet's choiceful ear 
was deluded into the repetition Royal Dane, by the fine variety of elemental 
sound, and rythmic acent and quantity in the Title. The ambitious reading 
of the Star was worse than careles, without an apology^ by imploring em- 
phaticaly of the Eoyal Dane what he would not of Hamlet, King, and Father. 

I heard another eratic Star of critical ilumination, read thus : 

How fares our Cousin Hamlet ? 
Ham. Excelent, i' faith, of the chamelion's dish I eat; the air promise- 
cramed. 

Leaving it to a brighter star-light to show, whether Hamlet, -or the air was 
inconsiderately cramed. 

Many persons who might be profitably hired to Square Timber, make-show 
of doing something, by idly whitling sticks. 



FAULTS OF EEADERS. 533 

misplaced verbal or gramatical acents. Propriety in this mater 
is set-forth in the dictionary, and the erors of speech may be meas- 
ured by its conventional rules. Nor is it within the purpose of this 
esay to notice faults in the pronunciation of the alphabetic ele- 
ments. Criticism should be modest on this pointj till it has the 
mental independence to give to the literal symbols of those ele- 
ments, and to their redundant, and defective uses, more of the char- 
acter of a work of wisdom, than they have ever receved in any 
writen language ; till the pardonable variety of pronunciation, and 
the ear-directed speling by the vulgar, have satirized into reforma- 
tion, that scholastic pencraft which keeps up the dificulties of or- 
thography, with no other purpose, it would seem, than to pride 
itself in the use of a troublesome and awkward system, as a crite- 
rion of educationj and with the tyranny of habit, to opose every 
promising atempt to corect it. 

Of Faults in Pitch. Speech has been especialy, one of those 
many subjects, in which we often pronounce upon the right and 
the wrong, without being able to say why they are so. If we 
have resolved the obscurity in respect to the proprieties of intona- 
tion ; it will not be dificult on similar principles, to give some 
explanation of its faults. 

Of Faults in the Concrete Movement. I have more than once 
spoken of that peculiar characteristic of speech, the full opening, 
the gradual decrease, and the delicate termination of the concrete. 
As this structure is destroyed by the use both of the vanishing, and 
the thoro stres, the misaplication of either must be regarded as 
a fault. The vanishing stres, exemplified by the upward jerk in 
some of the Irish people, produces a peculiar monotony, when 
continued in discourse; and the thoro, if not used for especial 
emphasis, or designed incivility, is a striking and a vulgar fault. 
Every one must be familiar with what is caled a coarse and un- 
manerly tone. This, as regards the structure of the concrete, was 
formerly shown to be the efect of the last named stress. Some 
readers seem incapable of giving the equable concrete on a long 
quantity ; substituting in place of it, the note of song. The most 
remarkable instance of this speech-singing, is that of the public 
preaching of the Friends, to be particularly described among the 
faults in melody. 



534 FAULTS OF READERS. 

Of Faults in the Semitone. Who has not heard of whining? 
It is the misplaced use of the semitone. The semitone is the 
vocal sign of tendernes, petition, complaint, and doubtful supina- 
tion : but never of manly confidence, and the authoritative self- 
reliance of truth. It is this which betrays the sycophant, and 
even the crafty hypocrite himself. They asume a plaintive per- 
suasion, or a tuneful cant, not, merely to imply j they are prompted 
by a kindly and afectionate state of mind, but sometimes because 
they distrust or despise themselves, and are therefore influenced 
by the mental state of servility. Suspicion should therefore be 
awake, when the show of truth or benevolence is proffered under 
the cringing whine of this expresive interval ; and in general, when- 
ever the semitone is used for a state of mind that does not call for it. 
A beggar should, by the instinct of his voice, plaintively implore ; 
and it is equaly a law of nature, which abhors hypocrisy no less 
than a vacuum, that he should give the truth of his narative in a 
more confident intonation. 

The chromatic melody is comon among women. Actreses are 
prone to this fault ; and it is one of the causes which frequently 
prevent their asuming the matron-rofe of tragedy, and the dignified 
severity of epic, and dramatic elocution. Women sometimes in- 
tercede, threaten, complain, smile, and call the footman, all in the 
minor third or the semitone. They can vow, and love, and burst 
into agony in Belvidera ; but rarely by masculine personation and 
diatonic energy, ' chastise with the (orotund) valor of their tongue, ' 
and gravely order the scheme of murder in Lady Macbeth. 

We have described the states of mind signified by the semitone. 
Whenever it suplants the proper diatonic melody, it becomes a 
fault, and begins to be monotonous ; for when apropriate it never 
is so. I once heard the part of Dr. Cantwell, in the Hypocrite, 
played in the chromatic melody. Perhaps it suited the pretensions 
of the pious vilain, but it certainly was a paling monotony to the 
ear ; and the want of transition, when he threw off the mask, in 
adressing his patron's wife, was remarkable. He was the righteous 
knave and the pasionate lover, all in the same intonation. The 
efect would have been more appropriate and agreeable, if an abated, 
slow, and monotonous drift of the second had prevailed^ with the 
use of the chromatic melody, when required by the pasion. 



FAULTS OF READERS. 535 

Of Faults in the Second. The ear has its green as well as the 
eve ; and the plain interval of the second in curent and elegant 
speech, like the verdure of the earth, is wisely designed, to releve 
its respective sense from the fatiguing stimulus of undue, and more 
vivid impresions. The diatonic melody, in a well composed elo- 
cution, is simple and unobtrusive, and thereby afords a ground-hue 
for bringing-out the contrasted color of expresive intervals ; yet it 
does, when continued into the place of this wider intonation, asume 
a positive character, under the form of a fault. 

A striking instance of misaplication of the second, is its em- 
ployment for that state of mind which properly requires the semi- 
tone. I formerly spoke of its false expresion, ocasionaly heard in 
the public cry of Fire. Some persons are of such a frigid tem- 
perament, or have such inflexible organs, even when a degree of 
warmth does not seem to be wanting, as to apear incapable under 
ordinary motives, of executing the chromatic melody. Pain, or 
a selfish instinct may force it on the voice; yet, in them, it is so 
slightly conected with tendernes, or so little under comand, that 
the most pathetic pasages are given in the comparatively phleg- 
matic intonation of the diatonic melody. We sometimes see an 
Actor of this unchanging drift of temper, cast, on the emergencies 
of a night, to the part of a lover : and may ocasionaly hear from 
the pulpit, fervent apeals of the Litany, and humble petitions of 
extemporary prayer, under an intonation, more apropriate to the 
task of repeating the multiplication table. 

Some speakers make an over-use of the second ; for even this 
plain and inexpresive interval when misplaced, so defeats the pur- 
poses of speech that we are sometimes more indebted to gramatical 
construction, than to the voice, for a perception of their interoga- 
tives. It is the same too with their emphasis, in those conditional 
and positive sentences which, for impresive and varied efect, re- 
spectively require the rising, and the faling interval of the third, 
or fifth, or octave. 

The most important function of the second, consists in the 
sucesions of the diatonic melody. The character of these suces- 
ions, as we learned in the eighth section, is produced by a varied 
composition of the seven phrases. We have now to learn how 
far the comon practice of readers, deviates from the described, 



536 FAULTS OF READERS. 

but perhaps as yet only described, perfection of a pure diatonic 
melody. 

Of Faults in the Melody of Speech. If the rule laid down in this 
esay for constructing an agreeable sucesion of diatonic phrases, is 
founded in propriety and taste, I must declare, I have never yet 
heard its conditions strictly fulfiled, in a well aranged, and satis- 
factory melody. Players spend their time before mirors, till grace 
of person is studied into manerism, and expresion of feature dis- 
torted into grimace. Emphasis of stres too, is teazed with experi- 
ment, on every word of a sentence, and tested in authority, by all 
the traditions of the Green-Room : but who has ever thot of any 
asignable rules for the sucesions of sylabic pitch in a curent 
melody, or suposed therein, the existence of describable faults ! 

The First fault to be noticed, is the continued use of the mono- 
tone, on the same line of radical pitch ; the vanish of the second 
or of wider intervals, being properly performed. I do not here 
mean the drawl of the parish-clerk, nor the monotony of the 
reading-clerk of most public assemblies; for these are sometimes 
the note of song, and will be spoken-of presently. The unvaried 
line of radical pitch, now under consideration, is not so glaring as 
this old conventicle-tune, nor has it at all the character of song. 
If the Reader were near me, I would ilustrate the peculiarity of 
this fault ; and I can only describe it, as preventing the agreeable 
efect, arising from the contrast of pitch; the transition in the 
case of a continued monotone, with a rising concrete, being from 
a feeble vanish to a fuller radical, only one tone below the sum- 
mit of that vanish ; in the faling-ditone sucesion of a varied 
melody, the distance is two tones below the sumit of the preceding 
vanish. 

One of the causes of this fault in public speakers, deserves to 
be noticed here. I spoke of vociferation as a means for imparting 
vigor and fulnes to the voice ; but this exercise being usualy on a 
higher curent, tends to prevent a proper variation of the melody 
of speech. Speakers who adress large asemblies, and who have 
not that clear vocality and distinct articulation which would insure 
the required reach of voice, generally atempt to remedy the defect, 
by rising to the utmost limit of the natural compas, and continu- 
ing their current just below the falsete. For fear of breaking 



FAULTS OF READERS. 06 1 

into this, they avoid the rising phrases of melody ; while the pur- 
pose to be distantly heard in an elevated pitch, prevents their 
descending by radical change. They consequently continue on 
one monotonous line near the falsete, and vitiate their taste by the 
partial pleas of their own example ; restrain their melodial flexi- 
bility ; and blunt their perception of the variety of movement in 
a more reduced curent of pitch.* 

Second. Melody is deformed by a predominance of the phrase 
of the monotone, together with a full cadence at every pause. 
This perhaps is only found in the first atempts at reading by 
children and rustics. 

Third. By a proper use of the phrases of melody within a 
limited extent, but with a formal return of the same sucesions. 
In this case, the whole discourse is subdivided into sections, re- 
sembling each other in the order of pitch ; the sections consisting 
of entire sentences, or of their members. This habit of the voice 
and ear, in dividing the melody into sections, as well as in forming 
acentual and pausal divisions, seems to be conected with one of 
the characters of style : for there is a tendency in some persons 
to give a like construction, and often an equal length to their 
sentences. 

All Actors, except those of the first class, and they are not as 
finished on this point as they may be hereafterj are prone to this 
bird-like kind of intonation. They have a short run of melody, 
which if not forcibly interupted by some peculiar expression, is 
constantly recurring. The return forms a kind of melodial meas- 
ure : and I now call to mind an Actres of great repute, whose 
intonation was filled with emphasis of thirds, fifths, octaves, and 
waves ; and whose sections of melody could be anticipated, with 
something like the forerunning of the mind over the rythmus 
of a comon stanza of alternate versification. Those who comit 
this fault, will have no dificulty in recognizing and corecting it, 

* This cause operates on the enthusiasts of the Pulpit; on many of the 
speakers, and always on the clerk of the Lower House of the American Con- 
gress ; where the scrambling cries to he first heard, with the uproar of titular 
Honorables, overrule the gentlemanly rights, and duties of the voice ; but it is 
most remarkable in the mouth of the stump and scaffold Demagogue, whose 
ov:n political designs lead him to address great crowds in the open air. 
35 



538 FAULTS or READERS. 

if desirable, when the mirror of full and exact description is held 
before them. 

The monotonous efect of a repetition of these similar melodial 
sections, constitutes one of the signs by which the smart apren- 
tices of the Pit, and some of their beter-dresed peers in the 
Boxes, distinguish the voices of famous Actors, and think they 
represent their real points of excelence, when they mimic only 
the manerism of their faults. This recuring section of a similar 
melody may in itself, consist of a proper sucesion of phrases : 
but being unvaried, you hear it too often and remember it too 
well. The whole curent in this case, figuratively resembles the 
old Roman Festoon, which however well adapted to an insulated 
tablet, was in abasement of Greek architectural taste, joined in 
monotonous repetition around the frieze ; instead of representing, 
as a just melody might, that succession of sculpture, which in 
severe simplicity and expresive design adorned the varied metopes 
of the Parthenon. 

Fourth. I have known more than one speaker with this fault. 
Sentences are begun aloud on a high, and ended almost inaudibly 
on a low degree of pitch ; and so continued during a whole dis- 
course ; producing a monotony, similar in efect, to that last de- 
scribed. It would be dificult to find out the meaning of this fault, 
or to discover such a shadow of apology for it, as many worse 
ofenses in life might claim for themselves. One speaker whom I 
knew, with this striking afectatioiij for no instinctive, nor conven- 
tional motive could ever have directed itj was, first by himself it is 
presumed, and then by the asociates of his long since departed day 
of popularity, called ' a fine reader/ Such instances of fame may 
serve to convince us, that with all our blind conceitsj and who 
among us is without themj there is no art, except that of Thinking, 
in which self-imposition is more conspicuous than in Elocution. 
Without an acknowledged rule of excelence, every individual, 
cultivated or not, makes his own individual taste the standard. 
Having learned that it is the part of a good reader to represent 
the tliot and pasion of discourse, and as each in his atempt, fulfils 
his own conception of an author, he is self-persuaded, that he pos- 
eses the full power of the art. This is one cause why we find so 
much delusion on this subject. For, reputed ' good readers ? are 



FAULTS OF READERS. 539 

often not merely negatively deficient; they are often positively 
bad: and perverse as it may seem, to the overbearing aplauses of 
a majority, I have frequently gone to observe the faults of speak- 
ers, when caled to hear some 'star' of elocution, even when that 
star was himself a Teacher of the Art. Loud whoops and yells 
have always been the vocal delight of savages ; and noise of every 
kind is the pastime substitute for reflection in ignorant civiliza- 
tion : so an exagerated and consequently striking character of the 
constituents of speech, is always most agreeable to the uninstructed 
ear. 

Fifth. The manner of changing the pitch from one degree to 
another, above or below it, in the diatonic melody, was shown in 
the eighth section. An inability to comand the radical change, 
not only prevents variety of intonation, but embarases a reader in 
pasing from a very high or very low pitch, when he has improp- 
erly set out in either. Speakers sometimes descend so far, as to 
leave no voice below the line of curent melody, to alow an audible 
execution of the last constituent of the cadence. In this case, they 
perceve the feeble and unsatisfactory efect of their intonation, 
without knowing the cause of it, and being able to aply the 
remedy. By the rules of a proper melodial progresion, and of the 
maner in which the cadence descends, the fault here pointed out 
may be avoided. 

We noticed formerly, that a reader, with a good ear, has a sort 
of precursive perception of the falsete, which enables him to turn 
from it, when his melody is moving near the sumit of his natural 
voice. A similar anticipation of the lowest note, warns him to 
keep his cadence within the limit of distinct articulation. 

Sixth. The use of the protracted radical, or protracted vanish, 
instead of the equable concrete, is one of the widest deviations 
from the characteristic of speech. For, a proper diatonic melody 
consists of an equable movement on the interval of a second, with 
an agreeably varied radical change thru the same space ; the curent 
being ocasionaly broken by wider equable intervals,, and by difer- 
ent forms of stres, as the subject may require these aditions upon 
individual words. 

Inasmuch as this fault includes that of long quantity, it is not 
often heard in the hasty uterances of comon life., I have however, 



540 FAULTS OF READERS. 

met with a slight degree of it in a phlegmatic drawler. Public 
speakers overwrot by excitement, and straining their throats to 
be heardj I say, straining their throats, instead of energizing their 
voices, are most liable to this eror of intonation. Some cases of 
this fault are conected with a monotonous curent melody, and a 
very defective management of the cadence. I heard it under the 
form of the protracted radical, along with other heinous ofenses 
against good elocution, in one of the public's ' great Actors/ It 
was most remarkable in his endeavor to give long quantity to short 
sylables ; as in the folowing words of Macbeth : 

Canst thou not m — inister to a m — ind diseased^ 
PI — uck from the m — emory. 

I have here set a dash after the leters on which he continued the 
protracted radical, until it sudenly vanished in the termination of 
the sylable. The Actor's fault was the ering exercise of a vocal 
instinct. He perceved obscurely, the need of long quantity for 
the purpose of expresion ; but being one of those, who having some 
animal excitability, no education, little intelect, and an inverse pro- 
portion of vanity j are always looking upon themselves as the center 
of aplausej it did not ocur to him, that the prolongation of a 
mutable sylable, might be deformed by an undue quantity ; and 
that a subtonic at the begining of a sylable, makes no part of the 
equable concrete ; two points of knowledge that would long ago 
have been prepared for his ear and tonguej if there had been in 
the Histrionic art, more observation, and reflection j with less re- 
liance on the dream of l Identity/ and the fatal delusion of i Inborn 
Genius/ 

Seventh. The fault of melody we are now about to consider, is 
somewhat related to the last described misuse of the protracted 
notes. It includes some other forms of intonation, proper to 
song : the whole being confused in such a manner with the equable 
concrete, as to destroy every design of speech, and to furnish, even 
beyond Recitative, the ultra example of vocal deformity. 

In the history of man, nothing is more indefinite than descrip- 
tions of the voice : still there is ground to belevej this extravagant 
melody is the same as the Puritanical whine, afected so generaly 
in religious worship by the English Church, above two hundred 



FAULTS OF READEFvS. , 541 

years ago, and which lias been changed to other faults scarcely less 
censurable, in the pulpit of the present day. The Society of 
Friends alone have retained it as a general practice : and it will 
not be regarded as either idle or invidious, to look into the 
structure of this most remarkable intonation, by the light of our 
preceding analysis. 

I first give the notation of this melody, and will afterwards 
particularly explain it. 

I heard a voice from heav'n saying, write, 



3P t o°^ c^ cr^* **< ^ 



bless — ed 


are 


the 


dead 




who 


die in the Lord. 


<J>d 


•n 


*© 


^l 


* c 


^v 


*s VtSJS^I fc && 


u 




<* 


*m 














*%. 



I have spoken of the Minor Third as belonging to the plaintive 
scale of song. A melody founded on a curent, even of the equa- 
ble concrete of a minor third, has that peculiar character which 
forbids its use in speech. The above example is, with a few ex- 
ceptions, a melody of minor thirds, not in the equable concrete, 
but in the note of song ; and its monotonous whine is produced by 
the drift of that ofensive intonation. 

Upon this staff, let the third be minor. Then the first and 
second sylables are protracted vanishes upon a concrete minor third. 
A, and voice, are protracted radicals to a concrete descent of the 
same interval. From, is a protracted radical to the rising inter- 
val of a minor third. Heav'n, is a minor third of the same form 
with voice. The two sylables of saying, are equable concretes of 
speech, respectively, of an upward and downward tone. The rest 
severaly resemble those already described; except who, which 
begins with a protracted radical to a direct wave of the minor 
third, and terminates in a protracted vanish, on its downward 
constituent. 



542 FAULTS OF KEADEKS. 

In the execution of this melody, there is besides the general efect 
of a disagreeable and monotonous songj a peculiar and striking 
contrast, from the various changes among these diferent forms of 
intonation. The most extraordinary liberties are taken with quan- 
tity. The long however, necesary for the note of song, predomi- 
nates. No distinction is here made between imutable, and indefinite 
sylables : the short are prolonged to any extent ; and both the long 
and the short are divided ; one portion is given to the protracted 
radical or vanish, the other to the concrete : as in fro-m and di-e. 
I have introduced the equable concrete of speech among the pro- 
tracted notes, and have employed the diatonic cadence to exemplify 
those abrupt and rouzing changes of intonation, sometimes made 
in the course, and at the close of this fantastic and singing melody. 
I do not further describe its varieties, in the use of the above 
named constituents, together with the tremor, and the wider inter- 
vals that may be combined with them ; having shown enough to 
furnish a plan for self-examination and amendment. 

Should those who are acustomed to this melody askj why it 
may not be employed, if by habit agreeable, and reverenced in 
the serious ocasions of its use ; I answer j that, throwing aside taste, 
as arbitrary, and regarding usefulnes alone, it has no fitnes for its 
intended purpose, and does not acomplish the atainable ends of 
speech. By speech we comunicate our thots and expres our 
passions ; and in the duties of religion, there should be motives 
and zeal, to do it with the most forcible means of persuasion and 
argument. So far as the voice is concerned, these means lie prin- 
cipaly in the energy and expresion of intonated emphasis ; but in 
this remarkable melody, the designs of a just and varying intona- 
tion are counteracted by the almost continued impresion of a plain- 
tive song ; or are crosed in purpose by the unmeaning obtrusion of 
unexpected changes. How can the states of mind which direct a 
dignified fulnes of voice, for the encouraging descriptions of bles- 
ednes and glory, be represented by the trembling voice of distres ? 
How can the positive conclusions of truth, and the wonder at 
almighty power, requiring the downward concrete, be enforced by 
the shrilnes of a perpetual cry? How can we particularize the 
mental state of suplication, by the semitone, if we equaly employ 
it in the threats of vengeance? And with what force can we 



FAULTS OF READERS. 543 

represent interogation, if the wider intervals instinctively alotted 
to it, are so often unmeaningly heard in the voice ? 

Whoever regards the words of ordinary song, knows how em- 
phasis is there confounded. It is still less clear and corect in the 
kind of melody we are now considering. 

I have made the strongest representation of this fault. It is 
sometimes heard in a more moderate degree, especially in the voices 
of women ; consisting of a slight protraction of the vanish, on all 
the long quantities of discourse. 

This singing melody, delivered in the public Meeting-house, by 
men, as well as women, is generaly of a high or piercing pitch ; 
this being the means of audibility usualy employed by persons of 
uncultivated voice. 

Of Faults in the Cadence. Speech is particularly liable to faults 
in the sucesions of the radical pitch of melody, and of the cadence. 
Even the best readers do not seem to have acidentaly reached an 
atainable variety, in the execution of the curent, and the close of 
discourse. Faults in the cadence are however the most striking. 

We can asign a cause for the frequent failures upon this point 

Whoever closely observes the character of speech, in comon dia- 
logue, must perceve that the earnest interests which govern it, the 
sharp replications and interuptions of argument, and the piercing 
pitch of mirth and anger, exclude in a great measure, the termi- 
nating repose of the cadence. This is particularly the case with 
children and the ignorant, who having no motive either of action 
or speech, except interested curiosity and selfish pasion, rarely 
employ any other than the wider and more expresive intervals of 
intonation. When therefore a person first undertakes to read, with 
the serious purpose of a dignified elocution, the impasioned habit is 
too inveterate to be at once laid asidej and a disposition to keep 
up the coloquial characteristic of speech, extending itself to the 
place of the cadence, defers for a long time, the ability to give 
with propriety and taste, the more composed and the graver purpose 
of the terminative phrase. 

Faults in the execution of the cadence are various. The most 
remarkable instance within my memory, is that of a clergyman, 
who in an address of nearly ten minutes' duration, never, to my 
observation, made a cadence j not even at his final period. The 



544 FAULTS OF READERS. 

audience were sudenly notified to sit down, by his terminative 
Amen, not by the proper indication of the close by his voice. 

Even those who have the ability to make a cadence are infected 
by the next fault to be mentioned. 

I described the various forms of the cadence. This was done 
to point out all the distinctions that may be criticaly made by an 
acurate ear, and may perhaps be regarded in some future school 
of elocution. For present purposes, we may particularize the 
Feeble, the Duad, the Triad, and the Prepared cadences. These 
are quite suficient for the ordinary purposes of readings and vocal 
skill can always give an interchangeable variety of them, in the 
sucesion of periods. The next fault then consists in a repetition 
at every pause, of the same kind of cadence, and that generaly the 
full or second form of the Triad. This fault is increased by comon 
punctuation, which often sets a period at places, where the voice 
should be only suspended by the phrase of the downward ditone. 
A want of nicety too in varying the cadence acording to the in- 
dication of the close, is a very general fault : for there is great 
clearnes given to discourse, by the just discernment, that asigns a 
less reposing, or the feeble cadence, to loose sentences, or doubtful 
periods, and the full and prepared, to the end of a paragraph or 
chapter. 

I once heard an Actor of high character use, and not unfre- 
quently, what we formerly called a false cadence ; or a descent of 
the third by radical changej the second constituent of the Triad 
being altogether omited. This false cadence is sometimes made on 
a wider discrete interval^ the voice suclenly faling a fifth or even 
an octave, if the pitch has been high enough to alow these de- 
scents. 

Some persons are in the habit of making the cadence in a low 
and almost inaudible pitch. In this case the want of an anticipa- 
tive ear, prevents a reader from hiting the precise place for his 
cadence. One who has not this skill, may know the period-pause 
is at hand, and that the voice should descend; but ignorant at 
what point he ought to begin, and under fear of faling precipitately 
upon the close, he prepares for it too soon. A downward second 
or ditone is first made, and some instinct preventing him adding 
the next tone below, by which the cadence would be completed 



FAULTS OF READERS. 545 

before its time, he adds a monotone, and again tries a downward 
ditone. In this maner he descends, till with an enfeebled voice, 
the cadence is made on the three final sylables. The process here 
described is not continued on many words ; most readers would in 
that case soon exhaust their pitch. Yet this does sometimes 
hapen; for the voice by this shelving course, is at last brought 
down to a husky quality, and sometimes becomes inaudible. 

Of Faults in the Intonation at Pauses. Under the preceding 
head, we described the forms and efect of false intonation, at the 
close of a period. Besides these, certain sub-pauses within the 
limits of a sentence, variously dividing it into members or por- 
tions, were caled in our acount of rythmus, pausal sections. To 
the eye, these are separated by the comon punctuative marks, 
representing the duration of the pause. Yet this temporal rest 
alone is not suficient in all cases, to prevent obscurity or mistake 
in the meaning of discourse. The coma and the period denote 
respectively, the least and the greatest degree of separation ; and 
these with the intermediate sectional divisions, constitute the whole 
purpose of the temporal pause. Intonation however, performs an 
important part at these subdivisions. For the several pausal sec- 
tions are variously related to each other ; and these relations, in 
their various forms and degrees, are shown by the united means of 
the temporal rest, and the phrases of melody. In the twelfth sec- 
tion, we learned what phrases are proper for conecting, and sepa- 
rating the subdivided meaning of a sentence. Those who, with the 
light of our principles, may hereafter look into this subject, will 
perceve the fitnes of the apropriation there made ; and will more- 
over be struck by the violations of gramar, and of the rule of 
variety, so comonly heard among speakers ; some of whom set a 
rising third or fifth at most of the sub-pauses, and even at the 
period itself. These improprieties must necesarily be frequent, 
from the character of the phrases of melody j and consequently 
from the maner of aplying them, being unknown. The Reader, 
I would fain beleve, can now forebear the several faults that might 
ocur under this head ; for certainly the purpose of speech will be 
obscured, if a faling ditone or tritone should be aplied to that 
pause, where a continuative syntax calls for the monotone or the 
very reverse of these downward phrases. 



546 FAULTS OF READERS. 

Of Faults in the Third. The third is properly employed in the 
moderate forms of interogation, and on conditional phrases. Some 
readers however, execute the whole curent melody in the rise of 
this interval. To those who recognize the uncolored dignity of 
the diatonic melody, this curent of the third has the striking 
efect of a continued interrogative interval, which renders it unfit 
to be the ground for expresive speech. As a Drift it would be 
monotonous, and its similarity to the wider emphatic intervals 
weakens their expresion, when required in its course. It is 
sharper in pitch than the diatonic melody, and consequently 
wants its dignity of character. I have heard persons with this 
fault try to read Milton, and Shakspeare, and the declaratory 
parts of the Church-service, and always, as apeared to me, with- 
out suces. The curent of dignified uterance must always consist 
of the wave of the second, on long quantities. No simple up- 
ward concrete can produce it; tho the rise of a wide interval 
may be ocasionaly employed for emphasis, in the gravest drift of 
the diatonic wave. 

It is a fault in the third, even when the whole curent is not 
made by that interval^ to form all the emphases with it. This 
likewise gives a sharpnes and monotony to speech ; for one of its 
proprieties as well as beauties, consists in a variation of emphasis : 
and we pointed out, in its proper place, the abundant means for 
this variety. 

A curent melody of the third in place of the second, is princi- 
paly ofensive by its monotony; for the wider intervals, as we 
learned in the section on Drift, will not bear continued repetition. 

Of Faults in the Fifth. The interval of the fifth is sometimes im- 
properly made the curent concrete of melody. It is a less frequent 
fault than the last, and is more comonly heard in women. Its 
monotony is still more impresive than that of the third; the 
whole melody having to a critical ear, the character of an inter- 
ogative sentence. 

It is not so remarkabe, when the emphases of a diatonic melody 
are made only by the fifth. This too has its sharpnes and mo- 
notony; and I am sure the Reader will be suficiently guarded 
against this fault, by keeping in mind the ample resources of the 
voice, for a varied emphasis. * 



FAULTS OF READERS. 547 

Those who misplace the third, and fifth, are apt to cary them 
into the cadence. Such readers end many of their plain declara- 
tive sentences with the characteristic of a question. 

I might point out a similar eror of place in the octave ; yet 
it is of rare ocurence, and only heard in the piercing treble of 
women. Some persons cannot put a question in the subdued 
and dignified form of the third or fifth, but always give it in 
the sharpness of the octave. 

Of Faults in the Downward Movement Faults of the down- 
ward concrete, consist in not giving the emphasis of its intervals 
in their just extent; in not aplying them properly or at all, to 
exclamatory sentences, and to certain gramatical questions that 
require a downward intonation. An improper use of these inter- 
vals is sometimes characteristic of a morose and saturnine temper, 
in persons who having no grace within themselves, have no voice 
of complaisance for others. 

Of Faults in the Discrete Movement. Of defects in the man- 
agement of the radical change of the second, in the diatonic 
melody, we have already spoken. Precipitate falls of the third, 
fifth, and octave, sometimes ocur in the cadence of children and 
others, while learning to read. Some again are unable to make 
those upward and downward radical changes, by which acom- 
plished readers may hereafter acurately efect all the discrete 
transitions required for emphasis. 

Of Faults in the Wave. The wave of the second, both in its 
direct and inverted form, is plain and dignified in character, and 
therefore admisible into the diatonic melody as a drift. It is not 
so with the waves of wider intervals. They have their proper 
ocasions as solitary emphasis ; whereas the continued repetition of 
them becomes a disgusting fault. The wave, comonly afected by 
a certain puling class of readers, is the inverted-unequal;? the voice 
descending on the second, and rising on the third, or fifth. This 
fault is most remarkable in reading metrical composition ; arising 
perhaps from our familiarity with the union of song and versej 
and from a conection of the art of reading, with the impressive 
intervals of its tune. Persons who read in this way, give a set 
melody to their lines ; certain parts of each line, as far as the em- 
phatic words permit, having a prominent intonation of the wave. 



548 FAULTS OF READERS. 

Much of every form of the wave prevails in conversation ; and 
the general character of daily dialogue often makes it apropriate 
there. I have heard the coloquial twirl, even exagerated by an 
Actres of great temporary reputation. Her style consisted of a 
continual recurence of identical sections of melody, composed prin- 
cipally of the wider forms of the equal and unequal wave ; show- 
ing a vocal pertness, and a sort of vivid familiarity^ but wanting 
the briliant propriety of execution, due from a performer of Higher 
Comedy to the Author. 

Some actors, and readers are prone to the use of the double 
wave. They make it the vocal twirl for every state of mind, 
thereby denoting their want of a varied and just intonation. It 
is an impresive agent, and is therefore, with an eroneous notion 
both of its purpose and place, often introduced to give prominent 
effect to melody. It has restrictively, its proper ocasions ; and let 
it be rememberedj there is a sneering petulance in its character, 
totaly inconsistent with dignity. 

Nothing is beter calculated to show the propriety of the plain 
ground of the diatonic melody, than the repeated use of the wider 
waves. It includes the faults in the third, and fifth, and conse- 
quently gives a florid and monotonous character to speech. When 
such striking intonation is set on every important sylablej how 
shall we mark emphatic words, except by an excess in vocality, 
time, or force ?* 

* The distinction, so often refered to in this esay, between the diatonic 
ground-work of melody, and the ocasional expresion of wider intervals judi- 
ciously employed upon it, is a great esential of efective and elegant elocution. 
According to our system, this diference was an ordination, to meet the re- 
spective demands of thot and pasion. Without regard to it, no one can ever 
succede in tragedy, or in other dignified uses of speech ; the diatonic melody 
alone, having the character apropriate to awe, solemnity, reverence, and grave 
deliberation. And altho the Art of Speech, almost stone-deaf to the causa- 
tive agency, not to the efects of intonation, has never yet been aware of this 
diference; still the purposes of truth and beauty in the voice, have herein 
never been without a witnes. For he who advocates the principles of this 
Work, may, by now finding ocasional instances of the use of the diatonic 
melody, admit, that being founded on the thotive state of the mind, it must 
have been heard in every age of cultivated speech. Its rarity in the voices 
of women, is one cause why so few among them, are able to rise to the tragic 
dignity of the stage ; notwithstanding a pretty face, and other prety atractions, 
may for a time serve them well enuf, yet not over- well, in Comedy without it. 



FAULTS OF READERS. 549 

Of Faults in Drift. The purposes both of truth and variety, 
in the art of Reading- Well, are efected by a delicate regard to 
the corespondence between the states of mind, and their vocal 

They have so acustomed an undiscerning audience, and so habituated them- 
selves, to a puling affectation, which consists in a curent melody of the wider 
intervals and waves, the semitone, ^and minor third; and are so ignorant or 
careles of their vocal duty, they do not perceve, and therefore will not be told, 
this is one among other causes of their frequent failure. For as the obscurity 
of histrionic description and criticism alows the inference, it is not improbable 
that Mrs. Siddons, in the early part of her career, may, to an impresive de- 
greej while ignorant of its construction, and its rules^ have instinctively em- 
ployed the diatonic melody. An incident related by her biographer, Boaden, 
will perhaps, if elucidated by our analysis, lead to this conclusion. 

On her first interview with Garrick, Mrs. Siddons, then Miss Kemble, 're- 
peated some of the speeches of Jane Shore before him. Garrick seemed highly 
pleased with her uterance, and her deportment ; ' and ' wondered how she had 
got rid of the Old Song, and the provincial Ti-tum-ti.' 

All former criticism on intonation being, we may say uninteligible, we are 
left to discover, by the light of our analysis, what these terms, Old Song, and 
Ti-tum-ti, mean. As the construction and the plain yet peculiar efect of the 
diatonic melody of speech, are widely diferent from the construction and the 
more vivid character of song ; and as a too frequent and improper use of the 
wave, the w T ider concrete and discrete intervals, the semitone and minor third, 
with their impresive intonations, when employed in speech, tho far from being 
song, do yet more nearly resemble it than the diatonic melody does; and 
further, as the term and notion of the trisylabic foot TiAtum-ti, seems to be a 
rythmical perception of the ear, produced by a sort of regular return of florid 
and misapplied intervals, described in the text, under the present head of faults 
of the wavej I cannot avoid thinking that Mrs. Siddons did, at. this early 
period j as I personaly remember she did in after-lifej either in part if not 
altogether, instinctively execute the just diatonic melody: and that Garrick j 
aware of its peculiar character, yet as ignorant of its analysis as his Call-boyj 
had no other means for describing his perception of its dignity than that of 
giving to a contrasted and strongly ofensive style of uterance, the names of 
Ti-tum-ti, and Song. Nor can I avoid beleving, that Garrick, who could thus 
perceve the peculiar character of the plain or diatonic melody in others, must 
himself, without being aware of its structure and principles, have employed 
a well-marked expresion of wider intervals, on the simple ground of a dia- 
tonic intonation ; tho never with its finished propriety and grace, under his 
then limited and imperfect knowledge of the resources of the Art. 

Looking then to the two eminent instances now before us, I would be loth 
to regard them under that condition, which Guido so satiricaly asigned to 
singers, unenlightened by Science ; but which may with truth be asigned, not 
unkindly, to many a Eoscius, even with all his so-called ' profound ' and un- 
wearied study and practice in his artj ' Nam qui facit quod non sapit, definitur 



550 FAULTS OF READERS. 

signs, in individual words; and to the Drift, or continuation of 
a given state of mind, and form of voice, on one or more sen- 
tences ; whereas a neglect of this adjustment will, acording to its 
degree, weaken the impresion of speech, or shock the ear and 
taste of an auditor. Some readers continue the same vocal drift 
under every change of thot and pasion ; others vary the character 
of the uterance, without adapting it strictly to these changes. 

We have learnedj the most complete close of a paragraph or 
chapter, is made by the prepared cadence ; and that certain vocal 
means, and changes in the phrases of melody, formerly described, 
may be employed to prepare an audience for the begining of a new 
subject, and to indicate the full consummation of the previous 
sectional or paragraphic pause. The neglect of a speaker on this 
point, may be considered a fault in partial Drift. 

As the reverse of this fault, we have the unexpected transitions 

from one style of uterance to another, without a coresponding 

change of subject. I once heard an actor set the whole House 

into a hum of meriment, by making that answer of Jaffier to the 

conspirators^ 

Nay by Heaven I'll do this, 

in the curling quaintnes of the wave. The character of Jaffier, the 

bestia.' 'For he who acts without a plan, Resembles more the brute than 
man.' 

It may perhaps be askedj how I could well discriminate the diatonic 
melody, at the time I was ignorant of its constituents and construction. I did 
not at that date know it by analysis, as it may now be known ; yet its peculiar 
character and dignity, in the personations of Mrs. Siddons, so caught my ear, 
that after more than half a century, the efect of what I then heard, is still a 
subject of my memory. And now that the Baconian system has, in its own 
words, warned us, not to raise experiments soley upon experiments, nor works 
soley upon works : but upon the l forms ' or general principles of works, to 
lay-down a broad foundation for progresive experiments ; and by further 
showing the proper use of the senses, it has taught, and enabled me to unfold 
some of the principles of speech ; I find the efect on my memory, of the in- 
tonation of this remarkable Actress, is altogether similar to that of the now 
known, and named Diatonic Melody. 

This is by no means, an after-thot of conceit; for by a like remembrance, 
of an Interlude of Dancingj which folowed her evening apearance in Volum- 
nia, or in Lady Macbeth, at Covent-G-ardenj I still retain at comand, the just 
time and intonation of a simple G-avot-Melody, tho heard only there, and only 
once. 



FAULTS OF READERS. 551 

solemnity of the ocasion, and the purpose of his entrance among 
the conspirators, are all at variance with the levity, conveyed by 
this sneering intonation. Severity of resolution is the ruling state 
of mind in Jaffier ; and this calls for the energy of stres, together 
with the positivenes of a downward emphatic interval. And it 
seems to have been a perception of the ludicrous, from a contrast 
between the seriousnes of the Character, and the pertness of the 
player, that caused the meriment : for the case, when duly con- 
sidered, produces an impresion of the instinctive propriety and 
taste of the Audience, and of the absence of both in the Player. 
They, unaware of the principle, laughed at what was laughable. 
He, in the conceit of ' genius, ' could not be serious at what was 
grave ; and perhaps satisfied himself j their laughter at the ridicu- 
lous, was to him, a complacent tribute of aplause. 

I have tried in vain to find a term for the extraordinary transi- 
tions, sometimes heard on the Stage. They belong to the head of 
the faults of Drift : but we must speak of them as vocal pranks, 
without a name. I mean to designate, those abrupt changes from 
high to lowj from a roar to a whisper j from quick to slowj harsh 
to gentlej from the diatonic melody to the chromaticj from the 
gravity of long quantity, to the levity of sneer, to the quick stress 
of anger and mirth, or to the rapid muterings of a madman. 

We had here, some years ago, a celebrated foreign Player from 
whom I draw this picture ; yet for impressive ilustration, perhaps 
slightly caricatured. His imitators, who have already disapeared, 

caled themselves the school of ; a blank now to be well 

filed up, as the school of Ignorance and Outrage, with benches 
crowded by vociferating, I had nearly said ' Rowdy / admirers. 

A system of elocution may be defended, on either of two diferent 
grounds. The one, that it is a copy from nature : the other, that it 
does artificialy best answer the ends of speech. iSTo apology for such 
flagitious transitions can be derived from either of these sources. 
I have seen persons under the highest excitement of natural not 
theatric pasion, and changing from one degree and kind to another ; 
but I have never heard any thing even distantly like the harlequin- 
transformations of voice, above alluded to, as aplauded on the 
Stagej except in a paroxysm of womanish hysteria. On the other 
hand, suposing the practice to be founded on an artificial systemj 



552 FAULTS OF READERS. 

we would make no objection, provided it could acomplish by con- 
ventional agreement, all the expresive purposes of speech. But 
what plea can that system urge, which perverts all the beauty and 
frugality of rule ; which destroys, by its anomaly and abruptnes, 
all the pleasures of habit, and anticipation; and takes from the 
fine arts, a delight in the boundles images, arising from the busy 
exercise of well-established knowledge. 

Where this fault of exageration does not arise from blundering 
ignorance, or from slavish imitation, it is purposely asumed with 
the view to produce what the small vocabulary of dramatic criti- 
cism, calls i Effect/ The Actor being deficient in the means of 
that truth and variety of expresion, which only a knowledge of 
the resources of the voice, not the practice of the Stage, can aford, 
tries to help-out his uninstructed 'Genius' by breaking the even 
tenor of an apropriate Drift, with some ear-starting stimulus or 
some unexpected colapse. 

We should however, do some Actors the justice to beleve, that 
with a proper estimate both of nature and art, they must secretly 
disaprove of such things. Yet how shall we absolve them from 
the charge of submitting to what they must know to be only a 
blind conformity to the capricious fashion of aplause ; and of being 
i wiling to deceve the people because they will be deceved ? ' the 
easy art and resource of weaknes, with cunning ; and the wretched 
apology of ambition and knavery. It is the part of elevated in- 
telect to undeceve the world, even by unwelcome truth ; to make 
all men at last bow down ; and to be the master of demonstration, 
instead of the slave of popular conceit. 

Faults in the Grouping of Speech. The Intonation at Pauses 
denotes the degrees of conection between the suceding sections of 
discourse^ and between related words, within the limit of each. 
Grouping is variously intended to keep these sections in a measure, 
independent of each other ; to unite the train of thot within these 
sections, when broken by expletives, or by gramatical inversion ; 
and to bring together on the ear, separated words, even from clif- 
erent sections. In this way the Temporal rest makes a distinct 
group of a section by dividing it from others. The Phrases of 
melody j by the monotone, the rising ditone, and tritone ; conect 
gramatical concords, when separated by intervening constructions. 



FAULTS OF READERS. 553 

The Abatement groups as it were, within brackets of the voice 
and keeps together, what is heard under a reduced, or piano form 
of force. The Flight limits to itself, the meaning of what is em- 
braced in a huried uterance. The Emphatic-tie and the Punctua- 
tive-reference respectively, by stres and pause, group within the 
field of hearing, words and phrases, separated in construction, from 
each other. 

Faults in grouping arise from not aplying these several forms 
as their purposes require ; and ignorance of their design, and apro- 
priate use, cannot fail to mar the perspicuity of oral discourse. 
He who has a full knowledge of the means and eficacy of group- 
ing, will, on this subject, be able with just principles, to criticise 
and corect the faults of others. 

Fault of Mimicry. In a previous page of this section, it was 
remarked, that imitations of speech, either serious, or for mirth, 
are generaly copies of its faults. I am here to speak of the efect 
of Mimicry in corupting the principles and practice of vocal 
expresion. 

Under the prevalent creed of the Old elocution, this purpose 
may need explanation. The creed is, that all who speak with a 
perception of the thot and pasion of their subject, speak with pro- 
priety. Nearly all persons both read and speak so diferently from 
each other, that we plainly distinguish the intonations, joined with 
the other modes of the voice, in each individual. It is intonation, 
with other modes, which constitutes the expresion of speech : and 
we must alow that individuals universaly uter their own thots and 
pasions. This creed then caries with it the conclusion, that speech 
is not directed by a universal system of corespondence between 
the state of mind and the vocal signj but that each individual 
must have for his states of mind, a 'peculiar system of signs, pro- 
ducing that distinguishable diference from all others, which we 
perceve in both his reading and his speaking voice. 

It would therefore folow, from the pretensions of this creed, that 
mimicry, by amusing itself with the peculiarities of all, so far from 
being injurious to the powers of speech, must on the contrary, tend 
to suport and improve them. For, by this belief, all being suposed 
to speak their respective states of mind corectly, while all speak 
diferently, the mimic, who can asume the proprieties of each, must 
36 



554 FAULTS OF READERS. 

poses the faculty of acquiring the excelencies of all. It is well 
known, that the efects of mimicry depend on contrast^ and the 
contrast in this case, must be made, with some standard in the 
human voice. 

By the condition however, or consequence of the creed, the 
standard of each individual is his own individuality ; and thus the 
standard is destroyed by its endles variations. Mimicry then, 
being able to asume the vocal ability of all, cannot, from the want 
of a standard, asign to any one a comparative excelence, or superi- 
ority : and tho it may, by universal imitation, add to its powers a 
superfluous flexibility, it cannot, from the want of this measure 
of excelence, improve or exalt itself. And as it must necesarily, 
from the vast amount of worldly falsehood and bad taste, be 
more frequently employed on vulgarity and exageration, than on 
truth and refinement, its constant tendency must be to eror and 
degradation. 

Mimicry in speech is the exact, or caricatured imitation of its 
faults. It must therefore be founded on a perverted, or extrava- 
gant employment of the various forms of Vocality, Time, Force, 
Abruptness and Pitch. Mimicry is the result of the ignorance 
and eror of man, in the uses of his voice. With all his imita- 
tionsj except they remind him of his own defects of body or mind, 
or of his want of dignity in the imitation j he cannot turn into 
ridicule, the unviolated law of nature within the whole range of 
the sub-animal voice. In the deformities, and erors of his own, 
he is the fit subject of his own contempt. Had the true and ex- 
presive system of that voice, been developed and taught, there 
would have been, as in gramar, few faults, except upon the vulgar 
tongue ; and perhaps no mimicry in speech, worthy of an inteli- 
gent smile. The order of Nature, with all things aright except 
untoward Man, has by its fitnes, its self-acordance, its serious truth, 
and its beauty, excluded every cause of the Ridiculous from her 
works : and an elocution that elegantly obeys her laws, cannot be 
mimiced for the amusement of a discerning and respectful ear. 

Mimicry is not only founded on faults, but it contributes to 
multiply and to confirm them. It multiplies faults, by confound- 
ing those just perceptions, that might discern and prevent, or 
corect them ; and it confirms them in the mimic, by giving to a 



FAULTS OF READERS. 555 

habit of distortion, the force of second nature in his voice. Mim- 
icry weakens and perverts the powers of expresion, by confusing 
its signs, in representing the same state of mind, as diferently 
expresed by diferent individuals : when in comon consistency it 
should always have the same apropriate vocal sign. One cause 
of our not readily perceving the true system of speech is, that the 
ordained conection of sign and state of mind, is in the corupt prac- 
tice of the greater part of mankind, confounded, by the same state 
being expresed in so many diferent ways. How much then, must 
the mimic be at fault, and the whole purpose of his speech per- 
verted, by the endles variety and exagerated degree of false ex- 
presion, constantly upon his ear ? Few mimics are able to rise to 
the character of dignified uterance ; and when they even seriously 
imitate acomplished speakers, it is always in their acidental defects ; 
for these only give the amusing characteristics. Some of the beter 
class of Actors posses a power of mimicry : but as I have known 
them, they have wanted a high refinement and finish, in the truth- 
ful representation of thot and pasion. And so it ought to be : and 
so it will be regarded hereafter, if in our present history of Nature 
there is a true representation of the system of her wise and eficient 
laws. 

And here let me not unmindfuly say, that if observation had 
not, by acident, aforded me the light, and the defense of this 
natural ordination of the voice, I would not have dared, nor even 
wished, to touch the mantle of renown, that wraps the Histrionic 
character of the Imortal Garrick. But when I see him, in that 
Emblematic Portrait of his fame, equaly afected to the Comic, 
and the Tragic Muse ; and hear, that he could both by taste and 
habit, mask the expresive features of his elocution, by an exager- 
ated and distorted mimicry, I grieve to think that my memorial 
perception must lose a single ray, from the bright and welcome 
vision of his canonized Perfection. 

Such, from its very character, must, to a greater or less extent, 
be the influence of mimicry, even on the finest mould of nature 
in the unenlightened human voice. How far a full and acurate 
knowledge and use of all the means, ordained for truth and ele- 
gance of expresion, with a perfect discrimination between the 
right and the wrong in speech, may enable an acomplished Actor 



556 FAULTS OF READERS. 

habitualy to practice the deformities, without infecting the graces 
of uterance, must be determined by the oportunities of future 
experience. At present, it is well to keep the tongue away from 
the contaminating company of its own infectious faults. For it is 
with our voices, as with our morals ; the habit of doing only right, 
most efectually preserves us from wrong : and it is no less danger- 
ous, to play with mischief in the one, than to amuse ourselves 
with mokery in the other.* 

An inquiry into the subject of mimicry, will afford a further 
view of the consistency of the whole science of expresion, set-forth 
in this esay. For if corect and elegant speech requires the em- 
ployment of the vocal constituents, in their proper places, in their 
proper sucesions, and in due proportion • to each other, it will 
furnish, if the Reader yet doubtsj some suport to this recorded 
system, to findj the violation of its rules, by a misplaced, or over- 
proportioned, or exclusive use of certain of these constituents is 
productive of a paling monotony, or a grotesk caricature. 

Of Monotony of Voice. This is an old term in elocution ; but it 
is here used with a more extensive signification than formerly. It 
means in general, the undue continuation of any function of the 
voice. 

One can scarcely point-out an ocasion, on which the simple rise 
of the second, or the diatonic wave, has this efect ; for acording to 
our system, these are properly the most frequent of the continuous 
styles of discourse. The use of the second, in place of another 
interval, may sometimes be an eror in expresion, but we do not 
call it monotony. The chromatic melody, as a continuation of the 
impresive interval of the semitone, is not monotonous, if its plain- 
tivenes is suited to the state of mind: but many other constitu- 

* In the early period of life, I had to a certain degree the power of mimicry ; 
and the ability to imitate the human and sub-animal voice, has asisted me in 
discriminating by contrast, the graces of uterance, in recording many of its 
faults. Since the development of the vocal constituents, with a habitual prac- 
tice of the means, and experience of the efects, of a true, apropriate, and ele- 
gant speech, the readines and precision of that mimicry is much impaired ; 
and partially lost : without however, the least diminution of exactnes in the 
measurement of time and tune, when now in my eighty-second year, en- 
larging the sixth edition of this Work. I cannot say how it would have been, 
had mimicry been a purpose of busines or ambition. 



FAULTS OF READERS. 557 

ents, when spread over discourse, ofend by this fault. A repeated 
sucesion of the same phrases in the curent; the same kind of ca- 
dence, particularly if it frequently ocurs ; a melody formed on the 
third, or fifth ; a restriction of emphasis to the third, or fifth, or 
octave ; a constant use of the acent and emphasis of the radical, the 
vanishing, or the thoro stressj of the tremorj and of the down- 
ward wider intervals ; too free a use of remote skips in the radical 
change, both in the curent, and the cadencej of the wider and un- 
equal wavesj with the protracted notes of song, may each become 
the cause of monotony. And it may be again remarked, that all 
constituents severally alotted to the rare ocasions of emphasis, seem 
to be protected against the fault of undue repetition, not only by 
their violating the vocal rules for thot and expresion, but by pro- 
ducing at the same time, an ofensive monotony. 

Of Ranting in Speech. This fault consists in the exces of certain 
functions. These are loudnes; violence in the radical, and the 
vanishing streses; and in general, an over-doing of just expresion, 
when united with unecesary force. 

Of Af eolation in Speech. This consists in an imbecile perversion 
of the proper use of articulation, and of the intervals of pitch, 
with a mincing awkwardnes, that always attends the actions of 
personal conceit. 

Of Mouthing in Speech. This belongs properly to the head of 
the faults of articulation ; and refers to deviations from standard 
pronunciation; of which it is not my intention to speak particu- 
larly. 

Mouthing consists in the improper employment of the lips in 
utterance. 

Some of the tonic elements, and one of the subtonics are made 
by the assistance of the lips. They are o-we, oo-ze, oit-r, and m. 
When these abound it may, without precaution on the part of the 
speaker, lead to mouthing. All the other subtonics may be to a 
degree, infected with this fault. It slightly infuses the sound of 
the o-we or oo-ze into their vocality; for the protrusion of the 
lips, gives something of this character even to a lingual element. 
Mouthing may be called a form of affectation. 

I might here give a particular description of the voices of 
Childhood and of Age : for these may be looked upon as faults, 



558 FAULTS OF READERS. 

when compared with the full-formed, vigorous, and varied uter- 
ance of intermediate periods. Our analysis will enable an ob- 
servant Reader to discover their respective characters. He will 
find the voice of childhood to be high in pitch, vividly monotonous 
in melody, and defective in cadence, with nothing, except parental 
doting to reconcile the ear to its screeching intonation ; which in 
its piercing and untunable noise from mingling hundreds 'just 
let loose from school' is a nuisance well deserving the rod of a 
Correctional Police, in every community that vainly hopes, by a 
little reading, writing, and arithmetic,- to banish ignorance, raise 
up a comon wealth of industrious, wise, and virtuous citizens, and 
to quiet the disorderly pasions of mankind. He will find old age 
to be slow, with frequent pauses, feeble radical stres, tremulous, 
ocasionally breaking into the falsete, and piping the childish treble 
in his voice. 

The faults here enumerated, are more or less comon among 
those who pass for good, and often the best Readers and Actors. 
When instruction shall be derived from the Natural Philosophy 
of speech, and not from the egotism of untaught ' genius/ nor the 
varying and contradictory examples it pretends to set-up for Imi- 
tationj the defects and deformities of uterance from these sources, 
now equaly prevalent in the higher and the humble class of read- 
ers, will like the faults of gramar, be confined to the uneducated 
and the careles. 

I have described the faults of speakers under general heads, 
and in their separate forms. They are heard in bad speakers, 
under all possible combinations : but the permutations would defy 
every atempt towards a useful arangement. The contemplation of 
the subject is therefore left as a task for the Reader. 

Should the principles of this Work ever prevail, and Speech 
hereafter become a Liberal and Elegant Art, it may be founclj the 
faults described in this section, as infecting the whole world of 
elocution, will have so far passed away, that the picture here ex- 
hibited, will seem to have been overdrawn. But when were the 
excelencies of Art, or Wisdom, or Worth, ever universal or even 
comon ? There will always remain in this motly world, posterity 
enough of those who now defeat the designs of Nature, and mar 
the mind-directed music and expresion of speech, to show to 



FAULTS OF READERS. 559 

another age, that I may not unfairly have recorded, the almost 
universal prevalence of this deafnes and deformity, in the great 
family of their vocal ancestors.* 

In describing the faults of readers, and on other ocasions in this 
esay, I have refered to eminent, as well as to exceptionable exam- 
ples, in the vocal practice of the Stage. The Actor holds both for 
purpose and oportunity, the first and most observed position in the 
Art of Elocutionj and should long have been our best and al-sufi- 
cient Master in its School. The Senate, the Pulpit, and the Bar, 
with the verbal means of argument or persuasion almost exclu- 

* Having shown, that the descriptions ofered in this esay, are drawn from 
Nature^ to furnish the sure foundation of a system for all times, and for all 
cultivated nations ; and having further, shown that faults, being a misapplica- 
tion of the constituents of a just and elegant speech, must of necesity, be 
universaly of a similar character, among those who disregard the principles 
of that j^ist and elegant speech : I have only to add here, as it might perhaps 
be required, some suport to this conclusion. 

During my residence at Eome, in the winter of eighteen hundred and forty- 
six — seven, I was present at an annual exhibition of the scholars of the Propa- 
ganda. From pencil-notes taken at the time, on the margin of a programme 
of the exercises, and briefly recording my perception of the character of the 
elocution, I make the following sumary. 

The speakers numbered from fifty to sixty, men and boys ; aparently from 
the age of twelve to five and twenty ; of various colors, visages, and lan- 
guages ; and from countries of different degrees of ignorance, and of civiliza- 
tion, between the longitude of eastern China, and that of the Alegany moun- 
tains. As each and all of these individuals must have had the respective 
forms of their intonation, and of the other modes of the voice, determined 
and fixed by early habit in their native country^ they could have undergone 
no material change in the Roman school. Yet the proprieties of speech, if 
any, and all its faults, whether in form, degree, or misaplied expresion, were 
the same as those we have enumerated in the English voice. No matter, to 
what sylabic sound, or structure of language they had been born, there was 
colectively among them, the same vicious variety in the uses of time, force, 
vocality, abruptnes and intonation, as with ourselves ; and as with us of the 
Saxon, Celtic, Gaulish, Teutonic and Slavonic tongues^ one vast predomi- 
nance of faults. Still, when closely listening to the right, the wrong, and 
the peculiar, I heard nothing in form, or even in queernes or exageration, 
that I had not seemingly heard before. In short, the destined swarthy wan- 
derer of the Propaganda, with his aimles and chaotic eforts in speech, and 
the acomplished Queens of song from the Conservatorio, with their desecra- 
tion, so to speak, of expresion in Recitative, are more nearly asimilated, in 
these vices of intonation, than their diference in complexion and in glory 
will alow the pride of the Opera to aknowledge. 



560 FAULTS OF READERS. 

sively before them, having so earnestly, or artfuly pursued these 
leading interests^ they have not observed, nor aparently, wished to 
observe, how far the cultivated powers of the voice might have 
asisted the honest or the ambitious purpose of their oratory. But 
with the Stage, speech is in itself, the means and the end of His- 
trionic distinction ; for however the Actor may be unduly influ- 
enced by aplause, this aplause is suposed to be atainabie, only by 
the expresive powers of his voice. It has therefore been towards 
the Stage alone, that criticism has shown a disposition, formaly to 
direct its vague and limited rules of vocal propriety and taste. 
The Stage however has not fulfiled the duties of its position; for 
while holding the highest place of influential example in the art, 
and enjoying the immediate rewards of popularity, it has done 
little more than keep-up the tradition of its busines and rotine* 
and tediously record the personalities, engagements, retirement, 
and every sort of anecdote of its renowned Performers ; without 
one serious thot of turning a discriminative ear to their vocal ex- 
celence, and thereby afording available instruction, on the means 
of their succes ; its distinguished Performers themselves, apear- 
ing more culpably, in the condition of too many others in exalted 
stations, who have not so much desired to fulfil the trusts of their 
Stewardship, as to acquire wealth and influence and distinction 
for themselves.* 

* Shortly after the publication of this Work, I was asked by a friendly 
Judges how I came to write it ; for he had suposed it would have been writen 
by some Public Speaker. But Judges deliver opinions; and the whole line 
of historical ' Reports ' furnishes only a single Case-in-point, to my friend's 
suposition : for of all the Orators, Demosthenes alone is said to have tried 
vocal instruction^ in teaching himself to pronounce the elements, by holding 
pebbles in his mouth. The invention and the belief of this silly story show 
the ignorance and the credulity, on the subject of the voice, among the An- 
cients. Yet the ' theory ' of the proces seems to have been no less impracti- 
cable then than it is now ; for it appears, he never had a second scholar in the 
same pebble-way. And generaly, it would be strange for an Orator to teach 
elocution, when he beleves it to be a heaven-born gift, that cannot be taut. 

Tho I have heard and heard-of, Great Speakers who have won ' golden 
opinions ' by their ' silver tones 3' I have always found, it was what they said, 
not how they said it, that set their party whipers-in, beneath ' Hotel-win- 
dows,' and around 'the table,' in a roar. True however it is, that Orators 
with the exception of Quinctilian, if he was one, neither write books on 
Elocution for othersj nor read books on Elocution to instruct themselves. 



FAULTS OF READERS. 561 

For this particular state of Histrionic Art, there must be a 
causey and as the preceding analysis has enabled us to explain 
some faults universaly infecting the voice, we may here properly 
inquire j why elocution has not been able to asume an inteligent, 
systematic, and respected authority on the Stage. Speech is the 
audible sign of the thotive and pasionative character of man ; it will 
apear then, the peculiar faults of the Stage procede from a limited 
and a mystic state of mind in the Actor. I therefore devote a few 
remaining pages to the subject j 

Of the Faults of Stage-Personation. The most general and in- 
fluential cause from which many of the faults of the Actor seem 
to arise, and under which, knowledge in his art has never been 
either comunicable or progresivej is the delusive asumption, so 
fatal to a clear and practical use of the mind, that his purposes are 
efected by certain 'innate powers ' or ' spiritual gifts ' independ- 
ently of all instruction ; that so far from being the result of the 
plain and universal rule of sucesful physical thot and actionj the 
expresion of his Enacted Character, like that vulgar notion of the 
'fine madness' of poetical invention, is the result of a peculiar his- 
trionic 'phrensy' of pasion, with the 'inspired embodiment' of its 
signs in the countenance and the voice. 

This mysticism of the school of Acting has divided its eminent 
disciples into two Clases. The First has a sort of double exist- 
ence, consisting, at one time, of its comon animal atributes of mo- 
tion, sensation and thot; at another, of the 'spiritual' representa- 
tion of the language of the poet. In one of these lives, the actor 
prepares for his part, acording to his own conception of it, or to the 
traditionary rules of the Green Roomj and for his scenic relation- 
ships to the rest of the Company, goes to Eehearsal, with his 
everyday mind, speech, and aparel. This is the personal life of 
the actor. In the other life he is before the audience, and has 
entered into a 'spiritual existence' with the poet. Here, all self- 
perception is lost ; he is sensuous to nothing, and has only an in- 
describable notion of the comingling of his own enacting 'soul,' 
with the rhetorical 'soul' of his author; thus entering with him 
into one co-eficient expresion of gesture, countenance, and voice. 
This state of an actor, in losing his ' consciousnes,' in the meta- 
physical 'ideality' of the character, is called Identity. And as I 



562 FAULTS OF READERS. 

can comprehend his bodily and mental condition, the actor seems 
to think, move, and speak in a peculiar kind of Trance* 

* An Actor, or Personator on the Stage, whatever his fictional school may 
teach, can no more, intelectualy and pasionately, beleve or feel himself to be 
the character he represents, than he can, in physical perception feel the pain 
of his friend, or taste the food that gratifies him. If he should in mind, for 
he cannot in person, be or apear to himself to be another, he must, in mind, 
cease to be himself: and therefore cannot, in thot and pasion, become another, 
except, if even that is posible, in delirium or a dream. Nor is there the least 
necesity that he should in acting, apear to himself to be another, in order to 
Act well. Wicked and foolish as man is in most of his afairs, it would be 
apaling to think what he might be, if human nature had not been made, in 
all things and everywhere alike. We are therefore, by birth and education, 
identical with one another; without its being a peculiar aim of 'genius ' in 
a Player to feign himself so, and this is the opinion of the world ; as we all 
know, what a social, moral, political, and religious comotion is produced by a 
single individual of name and station, who questions conformity, and observes 
and thinks for himself. He is marked as a dangerous character. Diference 
from the rest of the world in observation and thot, which are the charm of 
life, is rare ; but in pasion, which is almost the whole life itself of man, it is 
imposible. If by internal motive, or external impresion, thots are excited 
into pasion, we must show or enact it, in like maner with others. For with 
some variation of degree and maner, the pasion itself, in mental perception 
and outward action, is similar in all. 

It is not necesary then, to ' enter into ' or ' feel ' the pasion of another ; we 
are already in it, by a similar constitution ; and have only to perceve and 
expres it, as properly our own, when excited within us either by the voice of 
the orator, or the writen language of the historian and the poet. 

In ilustration, let us suppose an Actor to have the education, thot, pasion 
and physical means for expresion, like the best of his class ; and to enact the 
part of Hamlet, before the Ghost of his Father. He has then in his mind, the 
thots of doubt, disbelief, inquiry, and of the present supernatural event. The 
pasions or vivid perceptions that absorb, not entrance him, are horor, aston- 
ishment, reverence, afection, and revenge. These comon thots and pasions 
are, either from Nature or from habit, so at comand, ' that a man might 
play themj ' as Shakspeare analyticaly and truly describes itj by ' forcing his 
soul to its own conceit,' not into Identity with the thot or conceit of another : 
for as they have been experienced, and no further, can they be mentaly known, 
and expresed. No one has felt them, in the case before us, with the vividnes 
of life, but the suposed once-existing Hamlet : and therefore the Actor may 
raise within himself a certain form and degree of those thots and pasions, 
but cannot become identical with Hamlet, even if good acting should require 
it. He is then only identical, so to speak, with himself, upon the experienced 
forms and degrees of his own pasion and thot. 

The Actor's perception of Identity, compared with the plain phenomena of 
the mind and the voice, would seem to have arisen from one of these visionary 



FAULTS OF READERS. 563 

The Second Class, altogether diferent in its character from that 
of Identity, is no less mystical in its acount of itself. But as I do 
not comprehend the acount of that unthinking and inexpresive 
histrionic machinery, by which an Actor afects an audience, I 
shall, in noticing the subject, be obliged to quote the words of the 
initiated, who pretend to describe it. 

It has long been a question among Actors and Stage-criticsj 
whether he who excites most pasion in his audience, is necesarily 

views of Stage-personationj either that the state of mind ascribed to a Char- 
acter, is to be represented by the Actor being realy excited to the exact state 
of mind ascribed to that character, which is but a metaphysical notion ; or 
by his trying to forget himself, and in thot and pasion, to become, as if abso- 
lutely another, which is a hopeles metaphysical task. 

How far, in the case before us, the Actor is to become identical with the 
Poet, is another subject for consideration : and this leads to the inquiry, how 
far Shakspeare designed to identify himself in thot and pasion with the think- 
ing and sufering of the once-existing Hamlet. If a Poet should become iden- 
tical as he thinks, with some pre-existing model, and upon that identity, should 
draw the character from himself; the Actor, in identifying himself with the 
character, would necesarily become identical, so to call it, with the poet. I 
have nothing to say here, on what a poet might think of himself; for he may 
have his delusions, as well as the actor. "With all respect however for the 
poet, even one in truth and greatnes of thot, we maintain, that he, in no case 
becomes identical with the character he describes. How it may be with a 
character he altogether creates, if a poet ever did so create, I leave for poets, 
who work with ' transcendental spiritualities ' to decide. "When the costume, 
together with the language of a Character, is asumed by the Actor ; and he 
has to move and to speak like that character, he might posibly seem to him- 
self to have some slight cause for beleving, against his senses, that he is the 
very character : like Christopher Sly in the Play, who, with so many per- 
suaders towards his delusion, exclaims at last, ' Upon my life, I am a Lord 
indeed.' But how can the poet find a point of aproach to similarity, much 
less enter into Identity with his character, either historical or created j when 
spreading his memorial perception for his task, he gradualy and line by line, 
selects from its amplitude; and roaming, in his excursions after everything, 
returns with a gathered choice of thots, characters, maners, imagery, and lan- 
guage : and all this efected in time, and succession, by a Shakspearej only a 
high example herej identical with his own clasifying power, and the grace 
and grandeur of its taste. "What has he, in drawing the character of Hamlet, 
to do with contracting himself into a fixed and momentary identity with such 
a pasing and everyday personage as a former Prince of Denmark ? 

Leaving Identity then to its own Notional fate, the case seems to bej that 
the Poet should, or does add what he pleases, to the original traits of a char- 
acter furnished by history ; and the Actor adds what he has learned, to be the 
proper vocal-representation of a character furnished by the poet. 



564 FAULTS OF READERS. 

excited and directed by pasion within himself. This Platonic, or 
soul-dealing, and therefore disputatious and interminable question, 
seems so clearly, to have arisen from a belief in the ' Spirituality ' 
of Expresion, suported by a determined ignorance of the describ- 
able forms of the speaking voice, and of their physical power 
in representing thot and pasion, that I need not show, by our 
present light of analysis, in what maner it has contributed to 
prevent a progresive observation of the exact and beautiful co- 
relation between the mind and the voice. The maxim of Horacej 
' if you wish me to weep, you must yourself first 'feel ' your woes/ 
has so far either convinced, or misled his readers, that, under 
either of these two influences, I would not have here introduced 
the subject of this confounding question, if I had not met with 
the folowing confounding attempt to anounce it. 

' The actor of an oposite school,' says the Autobiography of an 
Actres, chapter thirteen, ' if he be a thoro artist, is more sure of 
producing startling efects. He stands unmoved amidst the boister- 
ous seas, the whirlwinds of pasion sweling around him. He ex- 
ercises perfect comand over the emotions of the audience ; seems 
to hold their heart-strings in his hands, to play upon their sympa- 
thies, as on an instrument ; to electrify or subdue his hearers by 
an efort of volition ; but not a pulse in his own frame, beats more 
rapidly than its wont. His personifications are cut out of marble ; 
they are grand, sublime, but no heart throbs within the life-like 
sculpture. Such was the school of the great Talma. This abso- 
lute power over others, combined with perfect self-comand, is 
pronounced by a certain class of critics, the perfection of dramatic 
Art.' And then, to show the diference between the actor who 
draws from the depth of his identical i soul/ and him who only 
apears to do so, we have the folowing fact. ' I have acted with 
distinguished tragedians, who after some significant bursts of pathos, 
which seemed wrung from the utmost depths of the soul, while 
the audience were deafening themselves, and us, with their frantic 
aplause, quietly turned to their brethren, with a comical grimace, 
and a few mutered words of satirical humor, that caused an iresist- 
ible burst of laughter/ The reader, if he looks for meaning and 
precision in language, must find out if he can, and then say for 
himself, what all this acount of Great Acting means, whether in 



FAULTS OF READERS. 565 

the school of Identity, or of Talma. In me, it produces not a 
single definite perception of the kinds, degrees, purposes, and 
efects of thot and passion, nor of the character and management 
of the personal and vocal signs that expres them.* 

* In addition to this visionary atempt to describe the maner of an acom- 
plished Actor, by transforming him into a * stoic ' of the Stage, ' a man without 
a tear ; ' and still further to justify our opinion of elocutionary discrimination, 
I select from a fashionable authority of the day, the following atempt, of a 
somewhat diferent character, but quite as uninteligible ; and showing that 
delusion of the mind which at times, overcomes us all when with words alone, 
we make a picture to ourselves, wherein no one else can recognize a clear 
representation of things. 

Madame de Stael, whom I quote at second hand, from an English writer, 
somewhere speaks of Talma in these words : ' There is in the voice of this 
man a magic which I cannot describe ; which from the first moment, when 
its acent is heard, awakens all the sympathies of the heart ; all the charms of 
music, of painting, of sculpture, and of poetry ; but above all, of the language 
of the soul.' 

It is always of great importance, to distinguish between a particular expla- 
nation of an object or action, and the self-absorbed writer's description of his 
own thots and feelings upon it : a point neglected in nine cases out of ten, in 
all past and present histrionic criticism. If a writer, in the selfish agonies of 
his own delights, and in the vaguenes, of his 'transcendental abstractions,' 
declares that the maner of an Actor, 'cannot be described,' the reader who 
is obliged to rely altogether on description, is not to be reprehended, especialy 
when there is ' soul and magic ' in the case, if he can have no perception of 
it. In general, as an apendage to such a rhapsody as the preceding^ a writer, 
after acknowledging his inability to explain the thing itself, should at least, 
atempt to describe what he means by his own metaphysical notion of it ; a 
task perhaps still more dificult. 

It is my misfortune never to have heard the celebrated Talma. Nor has 
that loss been otherwise suplied : for with due respect to the memory of an 
Actor whom I did not know, I would fain not ascribe to him a florid and 
outrageous intonation of wider intervals and waves, that I once heard from 
a declaimer, who was said to be his pupil and imitator : and all the descriptive 
terms I have met with, in critical eulogies on his elocution, have given me 
only an indefinite acount of his knowledge and management of the voice, 
whatever that may have been : and the egregious misperceptions among 
the few as well as the many, on subjects like thisj together with what I know 
by our principles, to be the exagerated intonation of French Tragedy; would 
leave me equaly open to belief, or to doubtj were a question on this point to 
be raised on the reality of the merit universaly ascribed to him. 

If this declaration should shock the partiality, I do not say impeach the 
discrimination, of an admirer, it may perhaps moderate his revolting aston- 
ishment, when he has studiously read this volume, and compared it with the 



566 FAULTS OF KEADEKS. 

In seeking instruction from others, not only in philosophy, but 
in the higher poetry j for this has taught me much even of physical 
nature, and more of the human mindj I have so acustomed myself 
to regard the simple truth-prints of traceable description, that my 
comprehension is often at fault, in the trackles pursuit of a meta- 
physical meaning ; whether in the mischievous visions of Plato, 
with his ' arithmetic mediums, ' and his ' procreations of the soul ; ' 
in the equaly incomprehensible, yet far less rhetorical and methodic 
dreams of his later pupils, Jacob Behmen and Emanuel Kant ; 
or in the unasiguable notions of histrionic principles and criticism. 
And altho we may be unable to folow the mystic visions of the 
schools of Actings it is not so dificult, with a little patience on 
the part of the Reader, to inform, or remind him whence they are 
derived. 

The Greeks, unfortunately in some things our teachers, receved 
so much of their Philosophical Fiction from Egypt and the East, 
that it is imposible to say, to what extent they invented, or how 
far they only altered and dresed-up the fable : it is however cer- 
tain, that having contrived, or adopted the imposition, they after- 
wards blindly went along with it. It was according to the vain 
and groping purposes of the Greek philosophers, that when they 
desired to know the truth, they could not find a metaphysical, and 
would not take the plain and physical way, to learn it. Observing 
how much time and labor were necesary for acquiring a knowledge 
of the frame and laws of nature, by what apeared to them a tedious 
use of the senses, they resolved to acomplish it more easily by a 
' pure intelection of the soul. ' In this fictional proces, asuming, 
acording to the human method of Design and Construction, that 
the world was made from an ' ideal design, ' or what they caled a 
Patern-Form of the world previously existing in the mind of the 
Creator ; and that the mind of man, made in the image of the 
Creative-Mind, was a humble finite ofspring of its al-glorious 
infinity. And further, observing*, for they did add an alowed mite 
of experience to their fictionsj realy observing, I say, the human 
mind to be capable of unlimited improvement, they thereupon 
conceited that in abstracting itself from the uninstructive and 

leaves whence it was copied, in the great Biblos of Nature, always open for 
reference, before him. 



FAULTS OF READERS. 567 

contaminating company of the senses, as well as from all other 
disturbing influences of this mortal life, it might, by a long and 
contemplative exercise of its own powers on its uncorupted self, 
hopefuly ascend towards the Creative Mind, and reach at last, its 
Parent-state of intelectual perfection, and imortality : that the 
Mind then purified, returning to its omnicient Father, and being 
made partaker of his knowledge, might come at last, yet still re- 
siding within an earthly form, to behold his patern of creation, 
and by aces to the constructive designs, be able, to comprehend the 
plan, the purpose, and the workmanship of all things. This pro- 
ces of Contemplation, was a product, and part of what the Greeks 
termed the sublime Abstraction of their First Philosophy ; now 
indeed to us, first and greatest in fictional pretension, but last and 
least, in usefulnes and truth ; and which, if not originally de- 
signed to impose on ignorance, did subsequently pervert the mind 
to that state of metaphysical credulity, by which it still imposes on 
itself. 

It was this, together with other distracting fictions of the First 
Philosophy, that so early and so fataly confused and corupted the 
now, alas ! irestorable simplicity of the Christian Religion ; a 
religion intended by its Author to be practicaly a general moral 
blessing; andj in discarding the quarelsome notions, and verbosity 
of the Grecian Schoolj to embrace an uncontentious system, with 
its decisive meaning of Yea, or Nay, for those who have ' ears to 
hear' unworied truth: not a religion of Platonic figments, and 
Aristotelian quibbles, for those who deafen their perceptions to the 
unarguing brevity of these two short verdict-words of Belief or 
Denial ; and who by rejecting this unsophistic, this al-sufncient, 
this conclusive, this practical, and this peaceful purpose of the 
Original Christianity, have, with a heavy responsibility for their 
evil-doing, given themselves up, universaly and world-without- 
end, to doctrinize, to wrangle, and to hate. 

This, which withdrew the Platonic Pietist from the visible 
world, to contemplate with inward but with filmy eyes, his own 
fanatic selfishnes; thereby to raise himself to a comunion with 
angels and saints, at the right hand of his Maker; and to pro- 
claim, with audacious triumph, his acomplished Beatitude. This, 
which led the Hermit and the Monk, to Platonic war against 



568 FAULTS OF HEADERS. 

the senses ; to retreat to the savage wildernes, and the Cell, be- 
fore the overpowering civilization of their truth ; and to seek 
a refuge at last, by trying to think, and to mortify themselves 
into Heaven. The Greeks began their philosophical but foolish 
method, with only disregarding the Truth of the Senses. The 
religious Anchorite, folowing up his Platonic creed, ended with 
the Impious atempt to thwart the purpose of his God, in ordaining 
its supremacy. 

It is this ireligious sundering of heaven from the universe of 
material things, that ' God has joined together/ which still haunts 
the narow-minded Bigot ; who under the venerable authority of 
his Pagan philosophy, continues to separate the senses from con- 
templation : bat which, in the fulness of wisdom, and of works, 
the beneficent Bacon, in mental saviorship, has taught us to re- 
unite. It is this Contemplation, still uncontroled by physical per- 
ception, and faling into visions, that enables every new Sectarian 
Leader, to conceit his own way to the will of his Maker, and to 
bring back from his own egotistical invention, another, and still 
another mesage of grace, to overfil the world with discord and with 
dreams. 

A modification of this system, still makes the Physician of 
Every School, pretend to see with his niind's eye, and that a blind 
one, those fictions of invisible causation in the human body, 
which produce the infinite sucesion of quarelsome Speculations, 
the ever-varied Nomenclature, and the never-satisfying Practice 
of his Dogmatic Art ; yet so inseparable from the weaknes and 
indecision, always co -existent in the mind, with fictional and 
fashionable changes in opinion. 

It is to the universality of this vice of thinking and beleving 
without the Mastership of the senses, that, acording to our igno- 
rance, or our ill use of knowledge, we owe the wildnes of Grecian 
Spiritualism, still imposed upon usj in the dates and postponements 
of Milennial Prophets ; in conjuring-down the Eaping Phantoms 
of the dead ; and in the Epicurean doctrine of atoms, revived in 
modern chemistry, with no other prospect than that of giving way 
in time, to some new suposition. 

And finaly, a view of this Vice will discover the source of that 
absurd i idealism' of the Actor, and of his self-suficient metaphys- 



FAULTS OF READERS. , 569 

ical ' genius ' in his atempt to describe his own conception of his 
characters, and of himself. 

If there is no cause for a work, the cause being here, only the 
adaptation of means to an end, there can properly be neither be- 
gining nor end to the work ; and if not eminent causes, there can 
be no excelence. Nature certainly has wise purposes in her work, 
and altho she never tells them, except by her spontaneous actions, 
she does not always prevent our finding them out by experimental 
inquiry. An Actor may have purposes for all his endsj and some 
system for self-instruction ; but as he never has satisfactorily told 
them, we must, as in the case of Nature, be contented, if he does 
not prevent our eforts to ascertain them. Without therefore posi- 
tively asertingj he has no means of instructing himself, or of being 
instructed, beyond his comon school of Imitation, we may, if un- 
able to discover his intentions or rules, particularly on the subject 
of the voicej be alowed to state our view of the causes why, with 
an exception of some local rotine, and the busines of the stage, he 
has none, above the instincts of gesture, countenance, and voice, 
comon to him and the rest of his company. 

One influential cause, afecting at large, the whole power and 
purpose of the Actor, not chargeable on him alone, and which 
encourages this mediocrity, if it does not realy produce itj is the 
too frequent absence, from a public audience, of those watchful 
Masters, Knowledge and Taste; masters who make greatnes, 
wherever they rule, because they will have nothing else ; and who 
in deciding on the faults and merits of an actor, teach him at the 
same time, to know himself. This however, is a general cause, 
arising from a neglect of instruction, comon to the Actor and his 
audience. Leaving this point for the consideration of others, we 
will here briefly show particularly, not only why he has not a 
knowledge of very important requisites in this art, but why 
circumstances render it almost necesary that it should be so. 

In the First place, then, the vocation itself of an actor is apt 
to over-ocupy, and thereby thwart any broader purpose of his 
mind, with memorial eforts upon wordsj and with a perpetual 
and varied sucesion of thot and pasion, strongly excited for the 
moment, yet too fugitive to become mentaly familiar, or direct- 
ively useful in the higher designs of expresion ; and therefore not 
37 



570 FAULTS OF READERS. 

calculated to lead his atention, or inquiry, beyond the comon topics 
of his art. 

Second. The whole mind of an Actor, with all its jealous hopes, 
is involved in the disturbing interest of his suces. His suces is 
measured by public aplause ; and public aplause, the very life and 
support of Egotism, rarely asists or enlarges the intelect, even on 
the subject of its ambition ; but is apt to weaken its power, and 
prevent its advancement in everything else. 

Third. The actor, by that necesary law of a wholesome and a 
happy life, which directs us all to some physical or intelectual 
industry, goes to the stage, in nearly every instance, as a means 
of suport ; and too often without the preparatory education to 
give power to his purpose, and dignity to its efect ; alured in the 
unreflective period of youth, by a dream of prospects and hope, 
rather than by a view of the influential realities and important 
consequences of his choice ; and beset by an early and restles 
ambition to be known, necesarily most urgent with him who, 
being unknown to others, is at the same time very probably un- 
known to himself; of a temperament, not always sedate and 
steady, nor extended and permanent enough to form the habit 
of looking into things as they are, and of fairly estimating the 
dificulties of a task. ' O I never think so nicely as that/ said an 
actresj the spoilt-child of the populace of two Hemispheresj to 
one, who remarked, that singing might be as articulate as speech. 

As it is much easier, gradualy to change a vague perception 
into positive eror, than to work-up exact and comprehensive ob- 
servation into systematic truthj it is almost conclusive, that minds 
born, or fashioned by circumstances, to the condition we have just 
described, would turn from the labor of cultivating the united 
powers of observation and reflection, to the amusement of in- 
dulging in wavering opinions ; and become a prey to the sophistry 
of Platonic fiction, or as it is now called, i Ideality/ or ' Trans- 
cendental thot.' And such apears to be the state of mind, far as 
they have explained it, of that class of actors, who surrounding 
themselves with visions of more than enthusiastic pasion, perform 
their part by the mystic means of Identity. 

I can say nothing of the state of mind of the second Class, that 
electrifies its hearers, by i volition ; 9 by ' grand and sublime per- 



FAULTS OF READERS. 571 

sonations cut out of marble ; ' and without a ' heart-throb of its 
own within its life-like sculpture/ stirs up its audience, to ' deaf- 
ening themselves with their frantic aplause.' Its power, in its 
own estimation, is most wonderful ; but its ways, and means are 
beyond my comprehension : for to me, the acount of these so- 
thought Frigidists, equaly with that of the former Class, taken 
from their own dreams about themselves, contains not one asign- 
able image in description, not one useful word of instruction, and 
nothing but words, in the purposes of histrionic criticism.* 

Suposing then, the dificulty or imposibility of our comprehend- 
ing the above description of the two great clases of Actings to be 
as strict a consequence of its obscurity, as if it was designed to 
be uninteligible : how are we to corect the actor-ism of Actors, in 
being either by ignorance, or self-will, incomprehensible in their 
notions of themselves^ which the ' Genius of the Lamp ? of inate 
and self-suficient light, has strongly encouraged, if he did not 
originaly introduce it into the stroling Company of Thespis? 
Simply by removing their delusions about personated ' Identity/ 
and Frigid personation ; by inviting them down from ' the realms 
of cloud-land, where they dwell with the ideal creations of the 
poet ; ' and by clearly teaching them the physical and measurable 
signs of thot, and pasionj their own natural and inteligible state 
of mind if representable by countenance, gesture, and voice, can be 
distinctly conveyed to others. 

Since then the Observative Philosophy j the Real Author-power 
of this Work, under my humble namej has for the benefit of the 
Actor, furnished the materials for a beter condition of his Art, let 
the Actor listen for a moment, to the Observative Philosophy. 

All that has been gropingly sought in the ' spirituality ? of Plato, 
and the Actor-ism of the Stage, may be here set down in the clear 
Baconian language of the Senses. An actor, in his personations, 
is not a ' disembodied being of cloud-land ' ' kindled by Prorne- 

* It appears, from the preceding description, that as the Actor of the second 
class holds no extatic Identity with his Author, and returns no grateful 
'feeling' to the 'frantic aplause ' of his audience, he must have under his 
' sculptured suit of marble,' some very peculiar extacy within himself. 

As I vaguely look upon this strange afair, and would write it down, in 
something like its own fantastic figures; the Actor's 'soul' sits al-secluded, 
a self-suficient Monocrat, without a single minister of pasion. near the throne. 



572 FAULTS OF HEADERS. 

thean fire' and ' taking the audience by storm;' with 'an upward 
gaze/ and in contempt of sensuous things, 'treading external cir- 
cumstances beneath his feet.' He is like the rest of usj tho he 
may not admit this 'identity^ an earthly animal, of flesh and 
blood ; with the means of moving, and of plainly or pasionately 
thinking, and speakings which he is visibly and audibly to aply 
with inteligence and taste. The thots to be declared, are set down 
in his Part, and are comunicable, by gramatical and apropriate 
speech. The pasions to be expresed, are described or implied in 
the words of his author. These thots and pasions, at least all 
that can, and ought to be represented, are comon to mankind, and 
are therefore readily excited in an audience, by their well-known 
physical signs. 

The actor being thus kept down to the level of humanity, on 
the points of thot and pasion ; the Baconian method of working- 
out the practice by the principle, procedes to the maner of ex- 
presing them. This is shown in the person, the countenance, 
and the voice. 

Spiritualism has never gone so far, as to asume the mystical 
direction of personal Gesture. The exalted, the downcast, the 
averted, the asenting, and disenting head ; the hasty, the digni- 
fied, and the starting step; the fixed, and the 'suplosive' foot; 
with the 'ehironomy , of the arm, in its unumbered motions and 
meanings, are all, in their consonance of character and expresion 
with the countenance and voice, no more than obvious muscular 
movements, prompted by nature, confirmed in their uses by habit, 
and exercised with propriety and taste. 

In the countenance, the Baconian eye of observation sees nothing 
in character and expresion, but physical form, outline, and move- 
ment, together with the smooth and the wrinkled, the pale and the 
red ; all variously combined, and yet so plainly conected with their 
respective thot and pasion, that your dog, hapily freed from Pla- 
tonic notions, in a moment perceves them in your face. But here 
the actor begins to raise his 'Perturbing Spirit ;' and not contented 
with nature's own physical suficiency for his thotive and pasion- 
ative signs, and which, if left to itself, would acomplish all his face 
is fit for j only forces it to the distortion of ' electrifying looks/ by 
'throwing his souP into his eyes, and nose, and mouth, and brow; 



FAULTS OF READERS. 573 

and perhaps, in violence to the just expresion of well-closed lips, 
even into the grining of his very teeth. 

And what does the Baconian observer find in the Actor's voice? 
He hears that some of his words are of longer quantity than 
others ; some more forcibly pronounced ; some are harsh, others 
smooth ; some acute, others grave ; hears, not in his soul's ear, but 
physically hears, the Modes of vocality, force, time, abruptnes and 
pitch, with their various forms, degrees, and practical distinctions, 
detailed thruout this Workj by a pupil of only a lower Form, in 
the Baconian school, who is yet hapy in his present, and looks 
with hopeful patience to his future tasks. Having all these phe- 
nomena within hearing, and only unrecognized because unamed, 
the Platonic Thinker, seeking something above vulgar observa- 
tion, has by notional ' movements of the spirit ' and figments of 
' ocult causes/ not only prevented his own spontaneous perception 
of the vocal phenomena, but worse still, has so far contributed to 
obtund, as fictional habits generaly doj both the senses and the 
intelect, as not to let him listen, much less atempt to comprehend, 
when told by others, that the Expresion of Speech is only one 
part of measurable and describable physical nature. 

Upon all that has been said, perhaps some of those who would 
degrade the Fine-art of Acting, to a level with the visionary 
Sychology of our poetic young ladies, may ask if we have not 
given a too prosaic, or ' matter of fact, ? acount of the material and 
formal causes of the Art? What, says the ' cloud-capt' transcen- 
dentalist, is to become of the actor's grandeur, pathos, and grace, 
if they are to be deduced from physical, and not from ' spiritual ' 
causes ? We answer, that with those states of mind, the proper 
use of the physical means for vocal and personal expresion, will, 
under the observative system, display those states with more uni- 
formity, and consequently with more force : for the expresion not 
depending on the individual caprice of visionary personation, will 
have a more invariable character, and therefore be more clearly 
and generaly perceved. To me however, the cause is not aparent, 
why the mystical f souP under the fiction of Identity, should be 
brought into Stage-Personation, more than into any other art. 
Why should not the Sculptor, Painter and Architect, when they 
studiously, and choicely complete their designs, and then practicaly 



574 FAULTS OF READERS. 

execute them with propriety and tastej claim to have this myste- 
rious light of esthetic inspiration ? We once heard of a French- 
man, who, having made a certain Miniature Shoe* ascribed his 
suces soley to the influence of ' a moment of enthusiasm. ■ And 
it has long been a by- word of the concentrative and transmuting 
influence of a Sheffield work-shop, that a buton-maker, as a e glar- 
ing instance ' of Identity, does in time become a very Buton. Nor 
are such jocose notions less absurd, when aplied to an Actor or 
when asumed by himself. 

The Fine arts are figuratively represented as sisters ; and they 
are a closely related family, far as the elegant work of their hands 
is directed by a unity of the general principles of beauty in the 
esthetic mind. When these principles have perceptibly and prac- 
ticaly taken-on their separate sister-forms j any atempt, mariage- 
like, to join two of them by a metaphysical rite, into one, would 
defeat the design of varied departments in taste ; and be repug- 
nant to the thot of a confederate-independence among themselves. 
From a few elements of mater and motion, or perhaps from single 
mater, and its motion, Nature produces her countless diferences of 
function and form. The same radical and governing principles of 
fitnes and beauty in the arts, that create the delightful imagery of 
the poet, direct the just vocal expresion of the actor. When the 
principle embodies itself into perception, the unity of the principle 
is divided, and pases, if I may so speak, into the varied diferences 
of its exemplified forms. The principle with the poet, is a train 
of directive perceptions, conizable to others only by its efect in his 
writen imagery and sign. The principle with the actor, is the 
train of directive perception conizable to others only by the efect 
in the proper audible sounds of his voice ; and strange as it may 
seem, -until further explained, we have a unity in the mental root 
and stock of those principles, but cannot have a direct resemblance 
between the several branches of the arts, which those principles 
produce. Somebody once made a doubtful metaphor, in caling 
Dancing, the * poetry of motion.' It wants just as much, the clear 
picturing of a true and consistent tropej and it is altogether out of 
place, in serious discourse, to speak of the Poetry of the Stage. 
It has had too, an influence on unthinking Actors, and on Critics 
who should think, to turn their atention from the asignable merits 



FAULTS OF EEADEES. 575 

of the art, to its vague and wandering mysticism; and to en- 
courage the weak-minded, to gosip with otkers, as well as to 
enter into their own reveries, about the l magical and dreamy in- 
fluence of pasion.' If poetry j flimsy, spirit- woven, merely self- 
inteligible poetry I meanj belongs to the Action of the Stage, then 
with the reciprocity of a metaphor, we might sayj the Action of 
the stage belongs to poetical soaring, even in its transcendental 
flights ; which is absurd. 

Let me ask one question of the dramatic Mystagogue, both as 
critic and actor ; for if not of one notional school, they would soon 
go their way from each other ; whence does the poet j yes, emphati- 
caly for this case, the Poetj who being a participant-' spirit 9 in 
stage Identity, should in his own art be a bright example^ whence 
does he draw this grandeur, pathos, and grace, which the Actor in 
his cloud of idealism, has only at second hand, to express ? Ask 
the Homers, the Virgils, the Shakspeare, the Milton, the Thom- 
sons, the Popes, and the Cowpers, in their various powers; and 
from their unmystified delineation of nature and of life, their 
analogies, all drawn at last, from that physical nature alone, not 
poeticaly sung, but clearly spoken to the ear in vivid representa- 
tion of the objects of every other sense j and learn how they have 
become to us, in the recognized exactnes of their bright and ex- 
alted pictures, the Baconian philosophers of fiction, and the great 
1 Secretaries' of nature and art; recording with iluminated faith- 
fulnes, the history of existing, and of posible, but not of pre- 
tending truths. They copied, each in his own hand, what was, 
and what had been : and set down even what might be, with the 
clearnes of a waking and a writen thot. Let then the infatuated 
aspirant of Stage-Personation, who thinks we have been too pro- 
saic, about his ' Genius of Identity/ learn under his dramatic 
Mastersj from whose language he must draw the audible material 
of his art, or it would only be the pantomimic ' spirit' of his vocal 
expresionj how they performed their high poetic part of grandeur, 
pathos, and grace, thro all the breadth and depth of pasion : with- 
out any real ' nightly visits of the muse;' with no 'extacies' of the 
Delphian Tripod ; no ' stiring the waters of the soul' to a state of 
poetic Identity ; but on a humble seat perhaps, and without en- 
chantment, drawing their ' goodly thouts' in the truth and strength 



576 CONCLUSION. 

of simplicity, from life and books, and things unwriten ; with the 
privilege of descriptively exalting the physical realities of nature 
to perfectional degrees of the beautiful, and the sublime. 



CONCLUSION. 

Here I finish the history of the speaking voice : having therein 
designed to record no anecdotal wonders ; no magnifying traditions 
of how far Whitfield could be heard; no prodigies of earliest infant 
speech ; no ultra case of a stamerer, who could not be even heard 
at all ; no echo past counting; nor ventriloquism past belief. On 
a subject worthy in itself of serious inquiry, I was reminded to 
pay more respect to the Reader who might value this Work, than 
contrivingly to entice him on to principles, by a distracting detail 
of ' startling 7 facts; having endeavored to set before him an in- 
structive story told by Nature ; whose wisdom being the broadest 
principle and power of all generality, is, if it admits the term, a 
single Wonder, Uncompared. 

It has been my purpose in this Work to subject the voice to a 
studious examination ; and by the simple but suficient direction of 
the Ear, to unfold its suposed mysteries with philosophic precision. 
How far this has been acomplished, the inteligent Reader must 
determine, with that alowance for minor erors, which the historian 
of Nature has perhaps, in an arduous task like this, a right to 
claim, and which the liberal and reflective critic, who may have 
been told of the inscrutable intonations of speech, will not refuse. 

Those to whom the subject of Elocution, in its higher meaning, 
is new, will receve this history without prejudice; and even if 
they may not have ocasion for its practical rules, will still admire 
the beautiful economy of nature, in the ordination of speech. Those 
who have spent a life of labor, by the dim and scatered light as yet 
reflected from the art, and who are too proud or careles to take-on 
a new mind, with the advancement of knowledgej will at least 
learn from this esay, the deficiencies of the old scheme of instruc- 



CONCLUSION. 577 

tion, tho they may not admit the deficiencies are here supplied. If 
the development now ofered, were only an adition to the artj per- 
sons of the later class might discover traces of their former opinions, 
and thereby have some preface to admiting it. But finding here, 
the history of what may seem to be a new and therefore a revolt- 
ing creation in science, they may reject it altogether, because they 
cannot recognize the definitions, divisions, rules, and ilustrations of 
their familiar school-books on elocution. 

However Philosophy and Taste may admire the Wisdom and 
Beauty in the Natural system of the voice, which we have en- 
deavored to describe^ it is to be regarded as a curiosity only, if 
it does not lead to some Practical aplication. I have therefore 
atempted, on the unalterable foundation of our physiological his- 
tory, to establish a method of directive precepts, and of elementary 
instruction. 

If we infer from prevalent opinions, we must beleve, the distinct 
methods of a good elocution are endles ; for every one with self- 
satisfaction thinks he reads wellj yet all read diferently. There 
is however, under a varied aplication of just principles, but one 
method of reading- well ; and we are now enabled, from a knowl- 
edge and nomenclature of the constituents of the voice, to furnish 
from Nature herself, and not from the endles fashions of the igno- 
rant tongue, the efective means of that only-method. Without 
some system of generalized facts and principles in Elocution, drawn 
from the pervading unity of Nature, there can be none of that 
felowship which so esentialy contributes to the advancement of an 
art. Yet even with an instructive ordination of certain vocal signs 
to certain states of mindj conventional diferences, unrectified by 
rule, tend to confound that ordination and weaken its authority. 
If some uniform system of the voice be instituted, similarity of 
knowledge will insure greater acuracy in the use of its signs ; for 
intonations, like words, will have more precision and force, when 
not varied from their fixed and apropriate meaning. 

In colecting and framing the precepts of Elocution, I have taken 
into view the strength, the propriety, and the beauty of expression. 
The system represents an inteligible, and dignified method of the 
voice, under that form of severe but eficacious simplicity, which 
is not at first aluring to him who is unacustomed to regard the 



578 CONCLUSION. 

exalted purpose, and efect of an enduring taste. With the art of 
reading thus established, its excelence must grow into sure and 
ireversible favor, whenever it receves that studious atention, which 
raises the pursuits of the wise above those of the vulgar. I might, 
from another art, relate the story of the great Painter, who with his 
mind filed with anticipative reflections on the merits of Eaffaelle, 
was disapointed at his first sight of the walls of the Vatican, and 
disconsolate after his last. 

The florid style of elocution, formed by wider intervals than are 
proper to the diatonic melody, is the result of a sway of exager- 
ative pasion like that which prevails with the child and the savage. 
The thotless excitability of noise-loving ignorance, which delights 
in the florid intervals of speech, demands a perpetual change to 
faults of a like vivid character ; and capricious alteration takes 
the place of enduring improvement. The system of plain diatonic 
melody, with the ocasional contrast of expresive intervals, for 
which, as the Advocate of Nature, I would plead, has in the charm 
of its simplicity, an impresive influence on the educated mind, 
which the studious use of observation and reflection in an art, 
must always insure. 

If this ofered system of Elocution should, on the grounds of 
propriety or taste, be objectionable, let another be formed by him 
who is better qualified for the task. Only, let a consistent, tho even 
a conventional, system be formed. And as in the other esthetic 
arts, we can turn to an ' Apollo/ a ' Parthenon/ and a ' Trans- 
figuration'; to the Rules of the Oratoria; the Landscape of 
Whately, and of Price; the ' Institutes' of Quinctilian, and the 
Precepts of Horace, and of Pope ; let Elocution be able hereafter, 
not only to bring forward the name of a Roscius, a Garrick, a Sid- 
dons, a Talma, and a Boothj let it at the same time lay-up in the 
Cabinet of the arts, a history of the available ways and means 
of their vocal superiority; thereby investing the art of speaking- 
well, with that corporate capacity, by the preservative sucession 
of which the practical influence of its highest masters shall never 
die. 

A kindly felowship among the votaries of the arts, and the bad 
temper of disagreement, turn so entirely on a harmony in opinion, 
that whoever has examined this subject would, for social sympathy 



CONCLUSION. 579 

if not for truth and taste, prefer a factitious system, if well-ordered 
and consistent with itself, as a substitute for the varying and con- 
tradictory rules, constantly proposed by ever-changing authority, 
in individual cases, of what may be caled comon or unenlightened 
speech. 

The Philologist, in the study and eolation of languages, esti- 
mates those which have receved their clasified and concordant 
method from the arbitrary institutions of gramar and prosody, 
above those which arise with less conection or analogy, from the 
wants and pasions of a barbarous people. 

TYTiere shall we find the natural prototype of that elegant and 
precise science of Heraldry, which makes the enthusiast, over his 
armorial ensigns, delight in the purely invented system of the 
Escutcheon and its Charges, and read their artificial but methodic 
disposition, by the brief and luminous rules of Blazonry ? 

What book of Botany can designate the fluted stem and sheath- 
ing leaf of the free-handed floral volutej the symetric lotus j the 
scroled acanthusj the varied cupj the indented leafing, with its 
delicate traceryj which altogether constitute the beautiful and 
endles combination of ornament, in the contrasted and harmonious 
grouping of Greek and Eoman Ideal or Esthetic Foliage '? 

These three subjects are all the systematic yet conventional crea- 
tions of art ; and it would seem, that objects of intelectual taste, 
as well as of sensuous perception, are sometimes more satisfactory 
when the latter are enjoyed under the impresive habit of acquired 
apetite ; and the former thru artificial and therefore to the dog- 
matic mind, less changeable arangements and rules : and we know 
that what is caled acquired apetite, is always governed by the 
influence of some habitual principles, however arbitrary these 
principles may be. 

Without a system founded either on Xature, or on general 
Convention, I am at a loss to know by what authority criticism 
in Elocution is to be directed. Its rules have too frequently been 
drawn from the very instances which are the questionable subject 
of investigation. Garrick is to be tried ; and by the Comon Law, 
for there is no Statute here, the former case of Garrick is the rule 
of critical justice. Hapy for an art, when such authority can be 
cited ! But what is to be said when presumption pushes itself 



580 CONCLUSION. 

into the front ranks of elocution, and thdtless friends undertake 
to suport it? The fraud must go on, till presumption quarels, 
as often hapens, with its own friends or with itself, and finaly 
dissolves the spell of its fictitious character and merits. 

The preceding history develops many principles of instruction, 
and criticism, and makes some efort towards their aplication. 
Pronunciation, pause, and stresful emphasis are the only points 
of elocution which have been reduced to the precision of particu- 
lars : and on these only have critics been able to show anything 
like definite censure or aplause. By directing their inquiry to the 
details of Intonation, they will learn how far emphasis depends 
upon it: and when a perception of its universal influence in 
speech is awakened by exact description, and nomenclature, they 
will then first perceve how the comprehensive purposes of em- 
phasis, in its fulest relation to thot and pasion, may be mared 
by defects in the delicate schemes of melody, and intonated ex- 
presion. 

Read over a review of dramatic performance. It may have 
words enough for its thoutsj and very good gramar. You cannot 
however, avoid observing a strong disposition on the part of the 
writer, to say something, when he has nothing to say : hence, with 
some transcendental notion, and some uninteligible analogy to 
explain it ; together with a parot- vocabulary of unmeaning terms, 
generaly misaplied, and always mawkish to an instructed and 
delicate taste, such as l chastenes/ l by-play/ ' undertone/ ' fresh- 
nes/ ' harmony/ ' effect/ and ' keeping* 7 the writer soon makes his 
way to surer ground, in noting the number and dres of the 
audience ; the comfort of the seats in the orchestra, with thanks 
to the manager, for recent alterations in the rules of the housej 
the habit of slaming doors, and the noise of iron-shod boots : the 
whole acompanied with copious extracts from some well-known 
dramatic scenes, and perhaps a reprint of one of Cumberland's 
criticisms. But how can I withhold an example of the 'fine 
phrensy ? of one of those ' briliant hits ? of histrionic criticism ? 
'To hear ****/ said and seriously too, not an ilustrious, but a 
madly ilustrating and modern English Poetj 'to hear **** act, 
is like reading Shakspeare by a flash of lightning/ A meteoric 
leson on Elocution, gesture, and the countenance, worthy of the 



CONCLUSION. 581 

transcendental teacher ; and quite satisfactory to those who thot 
themselves thus brightly instructed.* 

* To exemplify the uninteligible generalities of the greater part of his- 
trionic criticism, under the indefinite verbiage of the old Elocution^ I select 
the folowing article from a Charleston newspaper of the seventh of February, 
eighteen hundred and thirty-eight. It is a ' cloud-land ? analysis of the 
maner of a foreign Stroling-Actor, Staring at that time, over the United 
States j whose real excelence on many points could not however, under the 
old system, guard him against that transcendental fog of rapsody, which 
destroys every perception not only of an identity with his enacted character, 
but even of any likeness in the description to the character of the Actor him- 
self. After stating that the Theater was crowded, which we do comprehend, 
he goes on with what we do not : 

' His reputation rests upon a charm that gathers strength with time — his 
excelence is not particular, not resting upon starts, marvelous eckentricities, 
miraculous shreds, that like diamonds in rubbish astonish us by mere contrast 
with neighboring dulnes — his excelence is general, it interests and absorbs 
you, not by the finish of a movement, the richnes of a smile, the complication 
of a sneer or the preternatural power of a tone, but sweeps you on in the broad, 
bright stream of the profoundly estimated and distinctly developed character. 
You live in his personation — you feel your own blood sensibly coursing in the 
veins of his Hamlet, your own soul rocking with his indecisive will, your own 
brain gathering in the dim and awful musings that swell in his. It so dawns 
upon you, ever casting a light before its aproach, that you receve it as the 
realization of your own ideal, rather than start at it as an unhoped for won- 
der. You are not reminded that you had never thot of such, or such a con- 
ception before, and therefore you are never compeled to remember that the 
scene is without, foreign to you, on the stage and not in your own soul. You 
go with the personation, in it, a part of it, and not like parasites, bowing in 
mock astonishment at the heels of the show. This may be a little mystical, 
(0/ clouds and darkness, not a little,) but it is as near as we can arive to 

a corect acount of the impresion which Mr. has made upon our own 

minds. He is evidently a scholar, a man of thot, who has worked out his 
ideal with all the careful labor and intense dreaming that it costs the sculptor 
to perfect his. The consequence of this is, that he is aways the character, 
always Hamlet — for instance, acting, feeling, imagining, sufering, like — no, 
not like, for that denotes a comparison of two things where there is not only 
resemblance but difference — it is rather Hamlet himself, Shakspeare's Ham- 
let, bursting the cerements of his blackleter sleep and walking out from the 
volume upon the stage. There is a freshnes, a reality in it that would give 
it all the charm of novelty on repetition. It could no more grow tame than 
the eternal truth of the poet's own creation.' 

Again, at the close we have something that we do comprehend. 

1 The play was witnesed with earnest interest. We have not time to make 
a record of cheering, &c, but in the course of the evening Mr. was 



582 CONCLUSION. 

The preceding Esay furnishes principles and definite terms, by 
which the specific merits and defects of an actor, or a speaker may 
be distinctly represented ; by which the indescribable mysteries of 
speech, as they are caled, may be inteligibly told to other ages 
than those that hear them ; by which arogance and imposture in 
this art, may be wrested from their hold on the beter part of man- 
kind, and their corupting influence left undisturbed over that 
great majority, always ready to suport the small, and too often the 
greater frauds of lifej and which, in its way, does receve a sort of 
pleasure from the changing pictures of its credulity. 

The same close and comprehensive observation which makes an 
interpreter of nature, makes a Prophet in the arts. He can tell 
us, that in the future history of elocution, as it now is with song, 
the masters of its Practice must always be masters of the Science ; 
that they will, with the confident aim of principles, adress them- 
selves to the elect of inteligence and taste, by whom their merits 
will be rated and their authority fixed. And if in acquiring fame 
or fortune by their voice, they should receve asistance from this 
essay, I shall be contented to think it may be even a humble 
contribution to the means, by which the works of Esthetic Art 
have in all ages, delighted the inteligent and educated portion of 
mankind. 

Finally, I would recomend this analysis, and the practical in- 
ference which may be drawn from it, to those who declare that 
elocution cannot be tat; that the just and elegant adaptation of 
the voice, to the states of mind, cannot be an act of self-per- 
ception, and must therefore be the work of earles, eyeles, and 
though ties ' Genius ' alone. Such persons look upon this suposed 
peculiar-power of the mind, as a kind of sleight ; the ways and 
means of which are unknown and imeasurable. But ' genius' as 
it apears from its productions, is only an unusual aptitude for that 
broad, reflective, combining, and persevering observation which 
perceves and readily acomplishes more than is done without it ; 
and is therefore in its purposes and uses, not altogether removed 
beyond a submision to knowledge and rulej tho in its course of 
instruction, ' genius' is oftenest the pupil of itself. 

caled out, and amidst loud and long aplause, tendered his acknowledgments 
to the House.' 



CONCLUSION. 583 

Let those who are deluded by this vulgar notion of 'genius/ 
turn themselves from mystics, who wrap-up only to misrepresent 
the simple agency of the mind, and who cannot define its high 
productive power, which through their own delusive veil they do 
not comprehend ; let them ask the great Sachems of Science, the 
encompasing, and far-seeing Chiefs of Thot, and learn from the 
real possesors of it, how much of its maner may be described. 
They will tell us that ' genius/ if we must use this loose and oft- 
perverted term, is in its broad and productive meaning always 
earnest, sometimes enthusiastic, but never fanatical ; always char- 
acterized by steady perseverance ; by the love of an object in its 
means as well as its end ; by that unshaken self-confidence in its 
unobtrusive powers, which converts the evil of discouragement 
into the benefit of suces ; which cares not to be alone, and is too 
much engrosed with its own truths, to be disturbed by the opinions 
of others : with a disentangling purpose to see things as they might 
be; and the energetic means to execute them as they ought to be; 
soaring above that musty policy which, in its wary thrift of the 
expedient, would with a world-serving quietude preserve them 
always as they are : having the power to acomplish great and use- 
ful works, only because it wastes no time on small and selfish ones ; 
and pasing a life of warfare in detecting the impostures and folies 
of its own age, that the unenvious verdict of the next, like the 
celebrated response by the Oracle of Delphi, may pronounce it the 
chief in wisdom and in virtue. 



BRIEF ANALYSIS 



OF 



SONG AND RECITATIVE. 



-•>►« q ©+...— 



When the phenomena of Speech, Song, and Recitative, are 
regarded independently of verbal distinctions, they display a nearer 
resemblance than is discoverable by a general view of their efects 
and names. It is the Disclosing duty of Philosophy to show us 
the real existences of things ; to remove many of those lines of 
subdivision which the poor conveniences of clasification have 
adopted, and to exhibit, as available with finite resources, that 
clear and comprehensive picture, of Nature, surveyed at once and 
always, by the Discernment of her own self-present, and self- 
percipient eye. 

To the comon ear, speech and song are totaly diferent. Let 
us examine their relationships by a comparison of their several 
constituents. • 

In taking up this subject, I have no new vocal function to de- 
scribe. Song and Recitative are respectively only certain combi- 
nations of the five modes of sound, and their forms, degrees, and 
varieties, including the protracted radical, and vanishj enumerated 
in the preceding history of speech. It is my design in pointing 
out briefly, the maner of these combinations ; to complete the 
survey of vocal science; and if the expresive use of the voice 
does at all admit the Pretensions of Recitative^ to show the rela- 
tionship between its three leading divisions. 

38 • (585) 



586 A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF SONG. 



OF SONG. 

The art of Vocal Music has long been studiously cultivated ; 
and altho it has never yet receved a full elementary analysis, either 
of its constituents or their agency, its investigators have acu- 
mulated a mass of observation, and framed a body of rules for 
governing the great and brilliant results of its practical execution. 

It is at this time, beyond both my design and ability to ofer a 
detailed consideration of the topic before us. The oportunities 
for inquiry on the subject of Song, as well as on that of all the 
Esthetic Arts, are too limited in this country, to aford useful com- 
panionship in knowledge^ the broader rules of tastej and eminent 
examples of inteligence joined with executive skillj to furnish a 
record of facts and principles, in that order and with that clearnes 
which always characterize a direct transcript from nature. It 
becomes the American, in considering this subject, to contribute 
only his own personal observation ; leaving a further description 
of the singing-voice, to the ample means of European experience, 
education, and exact inquiry. I propose to give a general acount 
of the functions of song ; leaving it to those whom it may pro- 
fesionaly concern, to make a practical aplication of the facts and 
principles here developed, or to regard them only as a pastime of 
knowledge, in natural history. 

As song consists in certain combinations of the five modes of 
the voice employed in speech, the proposed analysis will be given 
under the same general heads : and firstj 

Of the Pitch or Intonation of Song. Song has every direction 
and extent of intonation ascribed to speech ; together with two 
forms, which do not belong to the later. 

In the second section of the analysis of speech, I described 
those peculiar modifications of the concrete j the Protracted Radi- 
cal, and Vanish. In their most simple form they, consist respect- 
ively of a faint and rapid concrete thru the interval of a tone, 
joined to a level line of pitch. Let us call the former of these 
constituent movements, the Quick-concrete; and the latter the 



A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF SONG. 587 

Note. Of the quick-concrete and prolonged note, there are two 
conditions. 

In the Firstj the quick-concrete rises and terminates in the note 
at the sumit of the interval ; constituting the Protracted Vanish. 
The ascent by this continuation of quick-concrete and note, thru 
the seven places of the musical scale is ilustrated by the Mowing 
notation of time and pitch. 



;j6> 




Ett&E 



In the Second condition, the prolonged Note begins on the radi- 
cal line. At its termination, the quick-concrete rises to the sumit 
of the interval ; constituting the Protracted Radical. In ascending 
the scale, by this combination of note and concrete, the progresion 
is made acording to the folowing notation. 



o- r-^4- 



S5. 



i4^^ 



&: 



By these two conditions, we learn that the note always has the 
quick-concrete, before or after it. 

Song variously employs both these movements ; the protracted 
radical less frequently perhaps than the protracted vanish : the 
voice in its instinctive intonation, apearing to fall more readily 
into the later. Not having however suficiently examined this 
point, I leave it for future inquirers. Regarding the vocal eject or 
expreslon in these two forms of the protracted note, there seems to 
be no diference between them ; and should no beter cause be found 
for the singer's choice in taking one or the other, it might per- 
haps, in some cases, be decided by the character of the elements 
on which it is executed. The radicals of the dipthongs, a-we, 
a-h, and ow-t, having more volume than their respective vanishes 
e-rr and oo-ze, would be chosen for the protracted note. When a 



588 A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF SONG. 

subtonic begins, and a tonic ends a sylable, the protracted vanish 
would be taken. When a subtonic both begins and ends a sylable, 
there may be a motive for a choice between them. Hence a singer, 
with reference to the more agreeable sound, and more impresive 
efect of a long-drawn note, would use the protracted radical, or 
protracted vanish, as the construction of the sylable might alow. 

The time of the concrete-rise in the foregoing scales, is repre- 
sented by a semiquaver, and that of the note, by a semibreve, two 
comparative terms in music, expresing the proportion of one to 
sixteen ; yet the proportion may vary. 

In the great System of Song, there is a Simple, and a more 
Complex structure^ formed respectively, by the discrete, and by 
the concrete movements of the voice. 

The sucesions of pitch in song, represented by the preceding 
scales, being made with a discrete skip to proximate degrees, with- 
out a continuous slide from one note into anotherj a vocal melody 
founded on these scales, forms the Plainest kind of song, resem- 
bling the discrete music of a flute. 

In this kind of melody, the length of the note, when compared 
with the concrete, is diferent, acording to the time of the musical 
composition. Its longest quantity may excede the proportion 
represented in the above scales. In its shortest, the note is dropecl ; 
and the double form, of note and quick-concrete, thereby changed 
to a single equable concrete. This ocurs in quick-timed songsj 
which therefore strongly resemble speech ; and were it not for an 
ocasional prolonged note with wide skips of radical pitch, and a 
bared rythmus, they would pass for it. Much skill is therefore 
not required to sing a comic song, the greater part of its intonation 
being in the equable concrete. 

The foregoing diagrams of the tone, represent the most simple 
form of the united quick-concrete and protracted-note of song. 
But other scales of wider concretes may be constructed. 

The following diagram represents the protracted vanish^ with a 
concrete, varying from a second to an eighth ; and a wider range 
of the concrete might be exhibited, for song ocasionaly uses it. 
Having given above, a full scale of the concrete of a second with 
its protracted vanish, it is unecesary to show a particular one, for 
each of the other intervals. The Reader can from the folowing 



A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF SOXG. 



589 



sumary, do this on paper for himself, by drawing a full scale, with 
the concrete of a thirdj another full scale, with the concrete of a 
fourth ; and to the octave. And here, as the interval of the con- 
crete widens, the disproportion, both in extent and time, between 
the note and concrete diminishes, and the later loses its relative 
distinction of Quick. 




Taking this diagram, with the page inverted, it will exhibit the 
notation of a Protracted Radical with an isuing concrete of the 
several intervals of the scale ; observing, that here we begin with 
the octave j a diference of no acount in the explanation. Of this 
form, the Reader can also draw the several full scales, with a dif- 
ering concrete ; giving thereby a representation of all the element- 
ary forms of the protracted radical and protracted vanish, with 
their rising concretes of every extent, used in song. 

Again, song employs the downward concrete in conection with 
the Protracted notes ; and of these movements there are two con- 
ditions. The First descends by the concrete, and terminates in 
the protracted note. The Second, on the contrary, begins with the 
protracted note, and then descends by the concrete, as in the fol- 
lowing ilustrationj where only the third, fifth, and octave are rep- 
resented ; but the Reader can make for himself a full scale for 
each of the other intervals, under both conditions. 



First Condition. 



Second Condition. 



i: 



i_I > - x ^^— — - — 



There is another form of the junction of note and concrete, used 
in song, consisting of the above two conditions united. The first 



590 A BKIEF ANALYSIS OF SONG. 

condition may have a note at the beginning of its concrete, and the 
second a note at its end ; the concrete in each case being between 
two notes. Of this the Header can for himself, draw a full scale 
for each diferent concrete, with its protracted note. 

Song then has two conditions of the rising and two of the faling 
movement ; severaly formed by a union of the concrete of every 
interval, respectively with the begining or the end of the pro- 
tracted note : and a third, in which the protracted note is at both 
the begining, and the end of the concrete. 

What was remarked concerning the length of the note, in the 
scale of the concrete second, may be said of the other scales, with 
their diferent intervalsj that the proportion between the note and 
the concrete may vary till the former disapears altogether, and the 
movement becomes like the equable concrete of the several rising 
and falling intervals of speech : and further, that as the concrete 
is' widened, there may be an equality between the two. All which 
cases ocur in the execution of the Elaborate or Florid Song. 

Let us supose the forms of the concrete, without the apendage 
of the note, to be united into one continuous line of contrary flex- 
ure. This produces, with or without an abrupt radical, the wave 
of song ; and inasmuch as we have concretes of every interval and 
in every direction, so they may be combined into every form of the 
wave. But besides this simple form, which is that of speech, the 
wave may either begin with a protracted note, or end with one ; 
or both begin and end with one. And these conditions, like the 
others, are heard only for dificulty's sake, in the twists and turns 
of the Florid Song. 

Song likewise employs the Tremulous movement on the pro- 
tracted note, the concrete, and the wave. 

These are the several constituents of intonation in song; and 
from the simple and limited, or complex and extended use of their 
two elements, the protracted note and the concrete^ song may be 
regarded under two divisions. First, as 

Discrete-Song ; or the progresion of a melody, formed soley of 
the protracted radical, or of the protracted vanish, with the con- 
crete of a second or tone, or of its wave, and a discrete change of 
radical pitch on any interval. And second, as 

Concrete-Song; consisting of a continuous movement by the 



A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF SONG. 591 

wider intervals, both in an upward and downward direction j 
mingled with protracted notesj with a wider radical pitch* with 
the various forms of the wavej and with every variety and degree 
of stres. In Discrete song, the formality of the voice resembles 
that of an instrument with fixed notes : and in the Concrete? that 
endles interchange among all the forms and varieties of vocality, 
force, time, and pitch, resembles the unmeaning permutations, in 
the voice of the mocking-bird. 

I here in pasing, allude to the subject of articulation in songj 
as it is the management of pitch which secures the distinctnes of 
this function. 

It was shown, that one of the requisites for distinct pronuncia- 
tion in speech, is a just aportionment of the concrete, to the literal 
elements. The audibility of the words in song depends in part 
upon the same principle ; for tho the peculiar intonation of the 
protracted note, destroys the general character of speech, it does 
not alter the rule of sylabication. The corect articulation of song 
however, requires a further atention to the acentuation of words, 
and to their sylabic quantity. The management of these matters 
lies with the composer and the poet. I have only to remark, that 
when the acent and quantity of sylables are adjusted to the acent 
and time of musical composition, with a full knowledge of the 
voice, and the required diligencej a qualified person may learn to 
sing, in the plain melody, or discrete song, with as distinct an ar- 
ticulation as he speaks. I say in plain melody ; for the wonderful 
Lofty vocal- Tumbling of the florid and ambitious song, has often 
as little to do with sylables and words, as it has with Expresion ; 
or with anything else than Dificulty, profitable Engagements, and 
Aplause. Writers on vocal science with the united resources of 
the old elocution, have endeavored to instruct us on this subject ; 
yet the same preceptive page which enjoins its importance, directs 
that the vowels should principally compose the strain of utterance. 
The vowel or tonic sounds have the purest and most agreeable 
vocality for songj and unfortunately alow fashionable singers to 
vocalize themselves out of their articulation, and astonish an audi- 
ence out of a natural ear and its educated taste ; but it is also 
certain, that a sylable in plain melody, is distinctly recognized, by 
its proper acent, and by the proper aportionment of quantity 



592 A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF SONG. 

among its elements. Here the purposes in these writers seem to 
be at variance. It is the vocalist's duty to reconcile them, by 
making distinct articulation agreeable. 

The preceding, is a general acount of the structure of pitch in 
song. The maner of using it, in combination with other con- 
stituents, will be described hereafter.* 

* Upon a review of our history of the intonation of speech and song, it 
seemed to mej the efect of the discrete scale of the later with its isuing 
vanish, might be produced on some musical instruments. 

I had designed, as an experiment, to conect a square and single organ-pipe 
with its finger-key, for a single note, by means of compound levers, so that 
the same touch which raises the wind-valve should, at a suceding moment, 
raise a hinged shuter on one side of the pipe, at its open end; the object of 
this shuter being to cover an oblong aperture, or ventage, reaching from the 
very end of the pipe, so far towards its sounding-lip, as to raise the pitch a 
tone or second when the shuter should be opened. 

This shuter having its center of motion towards the sounding-lip, was to 
overlap the edges of the oblong ventage : the under surface of this shuter, to 
have a block atached to it, for entering and closing the ventage, the overlap 
of the shuter forming a rebate or covering-edge to the sides of the aperture. 
This block to be of some thickness and beveled with its sharp angle towards 
the end of the pipe; that when the shuter, together with the beveled block 
closing the ventage, should be raised, the ventage would be gradualy opened, 
and the intonation be thus made to rise gradually, with a concrete movement. 
"With the shuter entirely opened, the long note then produced imediately 
folowing the concrete, might give the instrumental execution of the protracted 
vanish. 

In the transitions of melody with such a contrivance, it would be necesary 
that the valve in the wind-chest should be made to close before the shuter, 
otherwise the gradual descent of the shuter, would make a faling concrete, on 
every note. 

I here state the principle on which an experiment may be tried by those 
who have ability, time, and convenience for such things. Other modes may 
be contrived by persons of mechanical clevernes, for producing the concrete 
movement on a sounding-pipe either of metal or wood. 

Perhaps this mechanism might be conected with the vox-humana stop of 
an organ, or even the ventages of a bassoon. If this is practicable, it may 
give to instruments a little more of the character of the singing voice than 
they at present poses. 

I cannot say how much further the principle might be aplied, for ading the 
wider ranges of the concrete, by a ventage of greater reach in the pipe. The 
mechanism even for the Second would not be simple, and the management of 
more than one concrete-key, if I may so call it, might be beyond the dexterity 
of the player. What could be done on barel-organs, machinists can best tell. 

Automaton Figures have been made to speak, as it is caled ; but it is in the 



A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF SOXG. 593 

Of the Time of Song. Time is here considered, only in rela- 
tion to individual constituents, not to the general construction of 
melody and its rvthmus. 

Time is used with every degree of duration, on the note, on the 
upward and downward concrete, and on the wave. When, in 
quick-timed song it is so short as to exclude the note, the effect 
of the individual act of intonation does not differ from that of the 
radical and vanish of speech. 

Of Vocality in Song. Vocality has the same character and 
effect, in song and in speech. But the long quantities of the for- 
mer consisting of the protracted tonics, they are here more obvious. 
It may be harsh, full, slender, and nasal, and what is called in 
the language of the schools, Pure Tone. This subject is how- 
ever so well known to singers, as to need no further consideration 
here. 

A subject of physiological inquiry, connected equally with song 
and speech, here deserves our notice. It is learned by a few trials, 
that all the tonic and most of the other elements may be made 
individually by the act of Inspiration. The vocality is strangely 
altered ; still the characteristic sound is complete. It would seem 
thenj the vocal functions are practicable both in the ebb and the 
flow of respiration^ tho the former has been universally appointed 
to carry out the continued current of speech. As the inward flow 
of inspiration permits the utterance of only a single word, or at 
most three or four, the effect of inward speech resembles that of 
infants, upon their first attempts in expired speech. We have not 
for the purpose of inward speech, the Holding-breath, as we for- 
merly called it, and therefore the act of inspiration, bearing its 
single word, immediatelv fills the lungs, as the Exhausting-breath 
with the infant, reversely drains them, and cuts off the course of 
utterance. 

thoro stress of the protracted note proper to song. "Would not the imitation 
of speech be nearer, if the sound were by its instrumental cause, formed into 
the equable concrete ? 

On the whole, I shall be sory if any one should lose his labor by a vain 
working at this problem. It is not the odd-ends of time that ever do anything 
well : and if the schemer should be disposed to devote one useful day, to the 
wasteful hazards of mechanical ingenuity, in such maters as here proposed, 
let him take, at the same time, a hint of caution. 



594 A BEIEF ANALYSIS OF SONG. 

It may then be made a question, whether by a practice as long 
and assiduous as that which gives command over the time of ex- 
piration, the same holding-breath might not be attained in inspi- 
ration ; and, should the vocality of this inward voice, be im- 
provable, whether it might not be employed in the purposes of 
singing, for sustaining the voice indefinitely, and for insuring a 
continuous intonation in the higher intricacies of execution. It 
is knownj this power has been attained in whistling, both as 
regards shrilness, and the accuracy of pitch : and tho in this case, 
the command over the holding-breath of expiration, far surpasses 
the command over that of inspiration, still, the turning point for 
inhaling may be rendered almost imperceptible, under the con- 
trolling power that does exist. It has been proposed to apply the 
command over inspired speech, to the cure of stammering : but 
this irregular articulation may depend on unknown causes, in the 
mind as well as in the vocal muscle, and on a defective consent 
between them ; in which case, no advantage would be gained by 
inhaled articulation.* 

Of Force of Voice in Song. Force has reference either to the 
general drift of the voice, or to its individual movements. We 
shall consider it only in the latter relation. 

All the forms of stres we have ascribed to speech are found in 
song. This is true, not only of the equable concrete, sometimes 
used in the short impulses of the singing voice ; but the radical, 
the median, and the vanishing stress, are also severaly aplied to 
the protracted note, and to every course and extent of the wave. 

The full and abrupt radical being always preceded by an oclusionj 
it may have a place at the outset of all the forms of the concrete^ 
and at the outset of the protracted radical or the note, represented 
in the two conditions of the preceding diagram. A note at the 
termination of a rising or of a faling concrete cannot receve the 
radical stress. 

The greater duration of time, aloted to the diferent forms of 
the concrete and to the protracted notes, beyond that alowable in 

* The Opera, and Concert Hall, in their Auctions of Fame, bid high for the 
execution of vocal dificulties.. Here then is the chance of an enormous pay, 
for suces in what, as known, has never been done before; and what at first 
thot, may seem to be imposible. 



A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF SONG. 595 

speech, gives rise to a modification of the median stres or swell, 
not practicable on the sylabic concrete of discourse ; for more than 
one of these swells may be set on the same note ; or the force may 
diminish and increase alternately. The median stres may also 
on a protracted quantity, slightly resemble respectively that of the 
radical and of the vanish, by suderdy enlarging in the course of 
the prolongation and gradualy diminishing ; and by the reverse. 
This however, is a physiological refinement ; and we are not yet 
ready for its practical use. 

Some of the streses are perhaps aplicable to the radical and 
vanish, on the short sylabic intonation of comic song. 

A very remarkable use of force is made by the compound stres, 
in that vocal ornament caled the Trill, or Shake. 

The shake is described to be, a rapid alternation of a lower 
with an uper note, on proximate degrees of the diatonic scale. In 
stricter definition, it is a rapid alternation of two vocal or instru- 
mental momentary sounds, for they are not notes, on the extremes 
of a tone or a semitone. Let us call these two constituents of 
the shake, its Co-sounds. 

We learned that every concrete impulse on a tonic or subtonic 
element, necesarily consists of a radical and vanish. Conse- 
quently, when we make two sucesive impulses on diferent degrees 
of pitch, each must have these two esential portions of the con- 
crete. But as the radical with its vanish consumes more time 
than the radical alone ; and as the radical is an abrupt opening, 
after an oclusion, there would be, in this maner of making the 
shake, a delay from employing the whole time of the two portions 
of each concrete ; as well as a momentary pause, between the 
close of the vanish on the first, and the opening of the radical 
on the second. The shake then being a rapid iteration of two co- 
sounds, without aparent interuption, it cannot be made by a series 
of concrete impulses each having its radical and vanish. For 
should a singer try to execute a shake by taking the whole of the 
dipthong a-le, as one of the co-soundsj he cannot, by any efort, 
give its characteristic rapidity, when the first sound of a-le is the 
begining of each of its sucesive co-sounds; as the vanish, e-ve 
must necesarily folow the radical a-le, we employ the whole time 
of both the radical and vanish j which makes each co-sound too 



596 a' brief analysis of song. 

long for a rapid execution of the shake. By asigning each of the 
co-sounds respectively to the radical, and to the sumit of the vanish 
of this dipthong, thus forming the Compound Stres, there will be 
no insuperable dificulty in its execution. And the same is true of 
a shake on the other dipthongs, their respective co-sounds being 
diferent in elemental vocality. In the case of the monothongs, 
their several co-sounds are the same. 

The rapid execution of the shake, and the momentary impulse 
of its co-sounds, make it a dificult subject of investigation. The 
resemblance however, of the intonation of the vocal, to. that of an 
instrumental shake, afords a proof that the former like the latter, 
consists of two sounds on diferent degrees of pitch. It also 
apears, from the like ilustration by an instrument, that the co- 
sounds, tho of diferent degrees of pitch, are of equal time, volume, 
and force.* 

* It may seem, that the shake might be made by each of the co-sounds being 
the momentary utterance of what we caled the rapid concrete : and as this 
instinctively flies over with the radical and vanish, aparently as quick as a 
single co-sound, our explanation of an artificial and very dificult maner of 
deriving the fluent and rapid movement of the shake, from the slow acentual- 
eforts of the compound stress may seem to be unecesary or incorect. It may 
seem, being by the mass of mere Thinkers, from interest or other motive, so 
readily changed into it is$ there is no calculating the mischief it has done. 
I will not therefore opose what may seem on one side, by what may seem on 
the others for we should then have to invoke the aid of Plato, Aristotle, and 
the ancient as well as the modern itinerant and lecturing Sophists^ but will 
only state, that the may seem on our side, has already been submited to de- 
cisive observation, and experiment, in the instinctive tremor of the voice; and 
we have in the Gurgle of the throat, an iteration of the rapid concrete with 
both its radical and vanish. Now this is not a shake; nor can any skill or 
velocity ever make one of it. Vocalists call it the ' Goat's Quiver,' or some 
such name, without being able to show the diference of structure between the 
Quiver and the Shake. Our history tells us that the Gurgle or Quiver is 
formed by the Tittles of the second or of the semitone, on the tremulous scale ; 
the Shake, by a rapid execution of the compound stres, on either of these in- 
tervals. Before the invention of the shakej which is altogether Artificial, and 
is said to be of comparatively recent aplication to songj this Gurgle, or ' Trem- 
bling,' as the French formerly caled it, was used as a vocal ornament. It is 
instinctively practiced for Laughter and Crying, and for other purposes in 
the human voice; is found among sub-animals of all clases: and is distin- 
guished from the shake by the slightly abrupt and chatering radical of the 
tittles. In the aspirated grating, scratching or chatering of the insect-voice, 
the tremor is exemplified by our comon Black Cricket j Acheta abbreviata ; and 



A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF SONG. 597 

From our previous views, the formation of the shake may be 
described under two conditions; in each, the delay that might 
arise from every impulse having both a radical and a vanishj 
which we have shown, creates the whole dificulty of the casej is 
obviated by a subdivision of the concrete movement into the 
Compound stres. 

For representing the first formative condition^ let the sumit 
of the concrete impulse, or the vanishing portion, be enforced to 
an equality with the radical. We shall then have one impresive 
sound at each extreme of the impulse, joined by a smooth transi- 
tion of the fainter concrete, and forming the first two co-sounds 
of the shake ; which, in this case, are both made within the time 
required for one impulse, when that impulse contains both a radi- 
cal and a vanish. The vanishing stres, or what, in this instance, 
is improperly caled the uper note of the shake, being terminated 
by an ocluded catch, as in the sob and hicupi the voice is enabled 
by an immediate opening of that oclusion, to begin a new radical 
stres, improperly caled the lower note ; and by breaking from the 
ocluded vanish of one impulse into the radical of the next, and 
so, saving the time of transition on one whole concrete with both 
its radical and vanish, the rapid and aparently united co-sounds of 
the shake are efected. In the folowing diagram j 



rrrrm 



the lines a and b denote two proximate degrees of the scale. The 
figure 1 the radical stres, or lower co-sound of the shake : 2 the 
vanishing stres, or uper co-sound, on which the voice is ocluded. 
In an imperceptible instant, this oclusion breaks out into the next 
radical stres 3. The voice is then diminished in force ; and again 
increased to its vanishing stres, and oclusion at 4. 

the shake, tho not a rapid one, with the median swell on its course, by the 
Cicada pruinosa, or Anual Locust of the Middle States. 



593 A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF SONG. 

When made in this way, the shake may be considered as a rapid 
iteration of the compound stres, between the extremes of a tone or 
a semitone. 

For the second condition, let us take the first two of the co- 
sounds, or as we may call them, co-streses, described and ilustrated 
above. Deliberate trial will prove that an aplication of stres to 
the uper extreme of the rising concrete at 2, and to the lower at 3, 
as represented in the last diagram, in no way, prevents the voice, 
from making a downward continuous turn, from 2 to 3, in one case, 
and an upward continuous turn, from 3 to 4, in the other, into the 
form of a continued wave : and by an alternate sucesion of these 
radical and vanishing streses, or expansions, joined by the fainter 
concrete, but without an oclusion of voice, we are able to produce 
a rapid iteration of the co-sounds of the shake ; as represented in 
the Mowing diagram^ where the voice opens at 1, with the radical 
stres ; then diminishes to the faint concrete ; subsequently enlarges 
to the vanishing stres at 2; then without an oclusion, turns down- 
ward, and after diminishing to the faint concrete, enlarges to the 
stres in the radical place at 3 ; and in this way, when rapidly exe- 
cuted, forms the proper co-sounds, or co-streses, or co-expansions of 
the vocal shake. 

2 4 



b 



flVWtt 



1 3 

Under this view, the shake is a rapid alternation of the com- 
pound stres, on the rising and faling constituents of a continued 
wave of proximate degrees. And by it we learn, that the iterated 
co-sounds are not notes, but emphatic streses of no assignable time, 
on the points of contrary flexure in the wave. But as there can 
be a suden fulnes of the voice, only on a first outbreak of the 
radical j an engrafting of the vanishing stres on the concrete, at 
the place of the second or uper sound, must be made by a swell 
or expansion into the fulnes of that stres. From 2, the fulnes 
being diminished, is again sweled into the lower sound at 3 ; giving 



A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF SONG. 599 

the shake the form represented in the diagram. This junction of 
the stresses by an intermediate and atenuated concrete, with the 
gliding of one into the other, is the cause of the smoothnes, and of 
the l liquidity/ as it is caled, of a skilful and finished execution 
of this vocal ornament. The peculiar maner of uniting this double 
stress with rapid intonation, in the shake, not being part of the 
coloquial and slower uses of the voice, for the compound stres 
in speech consists of but two co-sounds, it is not surprising^ the 
power of executing it, is unattainable by most singers, and only 
acquired, in any case, after a long time, by great industry and 
perseverance. 

This is an atempt to explain the maner of combining stres and 
intonation in the shake. And yet, I am unable to give an unques- 
tionable description of it. By a slow and measurable movement 
of my own voice, I perceve, it can be made under each of the con- 
ditions above described. When it is quickened to its character- 
istic rapidity, the distinct perception of its structure and motion is 
lost, and I find it imposible to decide, which of the conditions is 
then employed : tho strongly inclined to think it is the later. With 
the asistance of the analysis here ofered, some other observer may 
describe it more definitely. 

Perhaps the explanation here given, may furnish a rule for 
teaching the practice of the shake. A method founded on this 
analysis, enabled me, with no other instructors than Observation 
and Industry, to atain a comand over it, with a precision and 
rapidity, suficient for the purposes of the present investigation : 
which certainly, could not, unasisted by a Master, have been as 
easily, if at all acorn plished, without a knowledge of the com- 
pound stres, experimentaly aplied in reference to the radical ex- 
plosion, and the vanishing sob. It would be dificult to say, how 
far the aid of our description might lesen the time and labor of 
the Conservatorio, in teaching the practice of the shake. 

As the compound stres is practicable on every interval, so a 
shake might be composed of an iteration of that stres on the ex- 
tremes of wider intervals : and a slow shake of this kind, is some- 
times heard among the tricks of the Florid song: but it is not 
technicaly clased with that ornament. It has a singular, and as I 
have heard it, not an agreeable efect ; and the width of the con- 



600 A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF SONG. 

crete, preventing the rapidity of the proper shake, it has not its 
liquidity, nor its hovering pre-cadencial character. 

It is a question among vocalists, whether the 'acent' as they call 
it, is on the uper or the lower 'note/ or as we now regard it, co- 
sound of the shake. From our preceding acount of this ornament, 
no cause apears, for a diference of opinion in this case, and for 
anything like an acent on either. There may be the usual ryth- 
mic perception of acent on the bar or bars on which the shake is 
sustained ; and with this mental beat, there might be a slight mo- 
mentary swell on the co-sounds, at the points of these beats. But 
I cannot hear even this ; and cannot therefore beleve there is 
an alternate acent of force, much less an inequality in time, be- 
tween the upper and the lower co-sounds. Once admit it, and 
there would be an alternation both of stress and of pitch that 
would destroy the even and graceful undulation, and the liquidity 
of the shake ; and change the function to that of the tremulous 
gurgle. 

Vocalists have described several kinds of shake. With its 
proper structure and efect, I can observe but two; the diatonic 
and the semitonic, severaly formed on a tone and a semitone. 
What has been caled a Rising and a Falling shake, is perhaps 
only the gurgling, or rising and faling radical pitch of the rising 
and faling of the tremor ; for as the tremor is not made up of co- 
sounds, or compound streses, but of rapid concretes with each its 
radical and vanishj the terms rising and faling, which do aply to 
the course of the tremor or gurgle, and not to the continued line 
of the shake, have been improperly retained, after the introduction 
of the peculiar iteration on proximate co-sounds. This true shake, 
after continuing along its level line of pitch, may be skipped a de- 
gree, or perhaps more, and then continued on this new line. But 
when caried directly upward or downward, by proximate degrees, 
on more or less of the scale j which would make it a rising or 
falling shakej the course of the co-sounds is caled a Division, the 
structure and movement of which will be presently described. 
Other shakes enumerated in books, are only particular uses of 
that ornament ; or only combinations of it, with various forms of 
intonation. 

The meaning and peculiar efect of the shakej for it cannot except 



A BEIEF ANALYSIS OF SONG. 601 

on the semitone, be called Expresive of the state of mindj may be 
stated under Five heads; and First. The most striking and 
agreeable character of the shake lies in its refined, its tunable, and 
as it were, its polished vocal ity ; which however I here consider 
with reference, exclusively to the high pitch of the Soprano voice. 
In men, generaly speaking, the shake, like most of their florid 
execution, denotes in their lower pitch, and rougher vocality, little 
more than a muscular dificulty ; for a low pitch, with a holow ful- 
nes, as we learn from instruments, destroys the esential elegance of 
the shake ; yet perhaps the harmony of a tenor and soprano, where 
the later takes the lead on the ear, produces the most delightful 
efect of this ornament. Second. There is in the shake, what has 
been called, its Liquidity. This arises in part, from its vocality, 
and in part from the smooth and rapid gliding of the concrete into 
the expansions of the co-sounds ; and is therefore more efective in 
the higher voices of women. Third. An agreeable effect is pro- 
duced by the variety of one or more swells, in the continued line 
of the co-sounds. Fourth. The preceding remarks aply equaly to 
both the shakes. But the semitone is distinguished by a pathetic 
character, moderated perhaps, by the rapidity of the transit of the 
concrete and its co-sounds thru the interval ; and by an overruling 
impresion of vocality ; with the liquid pouring from one co-sound 
to another, in the curent of their intonation. Fifth. I am dis- 
posed to class the efect of the shake, particularly the diatonic, with 
that of a downward skip, or a concrete of the third, in the Pre- 
pared Cadence of speech : for, as it seemsj the balanced suspen- 
sion or hawk-like flutter of a prolonged shake, before its final 
stoop to the key-note, creates the expectation of a descent, and 
calls for the imediate close of song, similar in maner and efect, to 
that of the faling of a third, for the prepared and reposing cadence 
of discourse. 

There is another ocasion, on which the compound stres is used 
in song. 

When, an extent of the whole compas of the voice, greater or 
less than the seven degrees of the scale, is rapidly traversed, but 
with a marked designation of each degree in the flight, it is caled, 
1 running a Division/ We have seen, in the formation of the 
shake, that adjoining points of the scale cannot be marked in rapid 
39 



602 A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF SONG. 

sucesion by concretes, where each contains both the radical and 
vanish ; it is necesary therefore in executing a Division, that the 
compound stres should be used, under one of the two conditions 
of its rapid execution, above described. In the first, the concrete 
receves the radical abruptnes, and the vanishing ocluded catch. 
This oclusion prepares the way for a second radical, and by 
sucesive concretes of compound stres, with a momentary but 
imperceptible oclusive catch between them, the degrees of the 
Division are rapidly traversed, and distinctly marked. For the 
second condition, we must supose the voice to make a concrete 
movement on the scale, to the whole extent of the designed 
Division^ and the expansion of an emphatic stres to be aplied 
on each of the proximate degrees of the scale, within that ex- 
tent. This may be ilustrated, by suposing the chain of oblique 
figures in the second diagram of the shake, drawn-out vertically 
to a straight linej representing the streses on the proximate 
degrees of a rising or a falling scale. A Division is then, a 
rapid iteration of the compound stres, on every proximate de- 
gree of the scale, for a given extent, in an upward or downward 
direction. 

Song has various ways of runing a division, or as we may call 
it, a Chain of compound stres. In long sweeps of agility, the 
whole compas of the voice may be pased over in one continued 
chain of an upward or downward, so to call it, knoted movement ; 
or the progres may be less extensive ; or it may be made by varied 
groups of compound streses, with a pause between the agregates. 
In short, the compas may be traversed in numberles ways, by the 
pitch, time, and maner of sucesion, of the co-sounds. Sometimes 
the run is by the proximate step of a semitone : but whatever the 
movements may be, they are all performed on the principle of the 
compound stres. 

Of the Melody of Song. Having described the particular forms 
of pitch, time, and stress, we may now take a general view of 
their combinations into Melody. 

The structure of melody exhibits every variety in the number 
of its constituents, and in their interchangeable sucesion, from the 
use of a simple protracted note with its quick and almost imper- 
ceptible concrete of a second, which we called Discrete-song j to 



A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF SONG. 603 

that of every form of the concrete, and of every form of stres, 
particularly the compound^ constituting ' airs of agility 7 or ' florid 
execution ; ' which we called Concrete-song. This distinction 
however serves only to mark the extremes of a varied use of the 
voice ; song being rarely heard in the strictly discrete form ; and 
when once the concrete movement of wider intervals than the 
second is adrnited, no definite line of separation can be drawn 
between the constituents of its structure. It was shown, in de- 
scribing the drift of melody in Speech, that the three divisions of 
the states of mind and of the voice, manifestly different in their 
several exclusive and restricted uses, often so run into each other, 
as to prevent a systematic separation of their intermingled signs. 
And we have the same dificulty of clasification with the intercurent 
melody or style of Song. 

In general terms then, and without pretending to describe the 
confines of each, I would call the Discrete-melodyj That which 
moves by proximate degrees, and by radical change, under the 
form of intonation represented in the first two scales of the pro- 
tracted radical and vanish ; and showing ocasionaly, because it can 
scarcely be avoided, a concrete movement of some of the wider 
intervals, and of the wave. This is the style of song used by the 
Church, when the Choir is asisted by the Congregation. It is 
suited to the comon capacity of the voice, and resembles the in- 
strumental efect of the organ which acompanies it. 

I would call the Concrete-melody 3 That disposition of the note, 
concrete, wave, compound stres, and every form of time and into- 
nation, which, united with the Discrete, constitutes, within due 
limits, the delightful union of nature and art, in the expresion of 
song ; but which forced beyond the just bounds of vocal facility, 
produces the extraordinary and unmeaning flights of a fantastic 
and wonder-working execution. An execution that has too often 
cuningly joined the profits of the Artist with the mere dificulties 
of his art; and with all who do not see thru the vicious combination, 
confounds a fanatical interest in the vocal artifices, name, and fashion 
of a Singer, with the cultivated feeling and taste of a musical 
ear. An execution that has at last brought an audience, too often 
to mistake a faling-in with the noisy aplause of a surounding 
crowd, for their own individual perception of the expresion of 



604 A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF SONG. 

melody, and to the harmonizing richnes of its perfecting acom- 
paniment.* 

Upon this, a,nd our previous history, we are now prepared to 
sum up the diferences between the construction of song and speech. 

The Discrete -melody of song, resembling in a few points the 
melody of speech, is still remarkably distinguished from it, by the 
efect of the protracted note, and by the more frequent ocurrence 
of wider transitions in the radical change. 

In the Concrete-melody of song, under its most complicated 
form, for I choose an extreme case, the difference consists still 
further in the kind, number, and uses of its movements. The 
range of its melodial compas excedes that of proper speech. The 
compound stress, under rapid iteration in the shake, and in the 
rapid run of divisions, is the most frequent constituent of airs of 
agility; by the speaking voice it is used only in the two co-sounds 
of a slow and single concrete. A function comon to both is the 
equable concrete, which is sometimes set to the short sylables of 
song; tho comon perception does not then recognize it as a char- 
acteristic of speech. The wider waves too, ocasionaly used for 
emphasis in discourse, ocur perpetually in the florid song. 

Of the Expresion of Song. Expresion in song, and in other 
music is the condition or state of mind, which in this case we 

* When this medley of the vocal constituents, with all its studied dificulties, 
was first taken over to England, for salej it was advertised as the Italian 
Maner : and indeed its manerism was then regarded, and properly too, as a 
caricature ; for certainly its Bravura-song is an exageration, and its Kecitative 
a misplaced distortion of the natural voice of expresion. But wonder and 
novelty are the chief Idols of popular Taste ; and whoever then posesed a 
little vocal facility soon began to imitate the long-drawn concretes and waves 
of the New Importation. To this we owe the monotonous Squeel, taught by 
the Singing-Master in the Italian Style, with its ever-and-anon returning 
wave, surging upon the ear, and drowning-out the rest of the song: a sad fate 
to a Taste that hapens to be in the neighborhood of a fashionable young lady 
who frequents the Opera, and of the sewing-girl over the way, who has learned 
from her, to execute those every half-minute Squeeling waves, equally well. 

It is often easier to find causes, than excuses for an ofense. Perhaps the 
universal fashion, of our Italian-taught Misses afecting this repeated Porta- 
mento and Sostenuto, in a high Soprano wave, with its median stres, is en- 
couraged by a family recolection of the perverse Squeeling of their little 
brothers and sisters, and even of themselves^ when children begin to have 
their own noisy way in the nursery. 



A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF SONG. 605 

properly call Feeling* exerted by means of the pitch, time, force, 
vocality, and abruptnes of sound. 

It apears from this definition, that the materials of expresion 
in song are the same as those in speech : still some diference will 
be found in their special employment, and respective efect, in the 
two cases. The Italians who have extensively taut us in musicj 
and who, with the purpose of their art changed perhaps to a vain- 
glorious authority, enslave too many fashionable, and often musi- 
cal ears to their National Manerismj have divided their song, with 
reference, rather to the style of its execution, and the places in 
which it is displayed, than to its expresion. I am only hinting at 
an arangement, upon the points of its rudimental functions and 
the mental state of feeling. 

In a general view of the subject of expresion, we findj the 
dignity of Song is produced by the -same fulnes in vocality, length 
of time, gravity in intonation, and limitation of the extent of 
concrete and of radical pitch, that give an elevated and solemn 
character to reading. There can be no grandeur in a melody with 
the reverse of these conditions. 

A lively style of song, on the contrary, like the sprightly maner 
of discourse, is made by a lighter vocality ; a quicker time ; wider 
intervals of concrete, and of radical pitch ; and a greater variety 
in its sucesions. The Aria Buffa or the Comic Song, generaly 
consists of such short quantities, that most of its sylabic impulses 
are made in the true equable-concrete of speech : and the only 
causes, as it apears to me, why it is known to be song, are its 
having a barred time, an ocasional long quantity, and a concrete 
and radical pitch of wider intervals, than those of the curent of 
speech. 

The plaintive efect of the semitone, and of the minor third, 
which is only a peculiar position of the semitone, is similar to the 
chromatic character of spoken melody. Perhaps as remarked 
above, we ought to consider the expresion of the cadence as 
similar in these two uses of the voice ; for the return to the key- 
note in song, does, like the intonation at the periods of discourse, 
produce the agreeable feeling of satisfaction and repose. 

Let us take another and more particular view of expresion, 
with reference to the diferent kinds of melody. And Firstj 



606 A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF &ONQ. 

Of the Discrete-Song. This is not without expresion, tho it falls 
short of what is efected by a judicious use of the more extended, 
and varied vocal movements. Its sources are derived from vo- 
cality, pitch, time, and stres. 

The tunable sound of a prolonged . note may give a peculiar 
character to song. Fulnes produces in the hearer the state of 
solemnity ; smoothnes that of grace ; and in the grotesk eforts of 
the comic song, the extreme and distorted variations of Vocality 
excite a perception of the gay or the ridiculous. On the subject 
of this last named modej the principles of expresion are similar 
in speech and song : but perhaps its efect is more obvious in the 
later. 

The expresion of Pitch consists in the transition on certain inter- 
vals. The discrete-melody can therefore display the plaintivenes 
of the semitone, and ocasionaly of the minor third ; together with 
what may be efected by the sucesions of other intervals of the scale. 

The Discrete-song may, by its Time, be either grave or gay. 
It apears, that the longer quantity of song is more agreeable 
than the short sylabic impulses of speech, even when they each 
have the same melodial order of pitch. This perhaps arises from 
a memorial conection of the protracted notes of song, with the 
expresive efect of long quantity in speech ; for extended quantity 
both in speech and song, is always the sign of either an energetic, 
or dignified state of mind. 

The radical and the median stres are aplicable to the protracted 
note of the discrete-melody ; but a varied swell of the median, 
constitutes the principal means of expresion. The protracted note 
may also bear the tremor. 

Some of the less expresive forms of the wave may be admited 
into what I have called, without asigning a very definite boundary 
to it, the discrete-song. 

Our limited knowledge, in time-past, of the constituents of 
speech, together with our vague and imperfect notions and nomen- 
clature of the states and actions of the mind, has created a dificulty 
in aranging the intermingled vocal signs of thot and pasion. It is 
the same with song. We can asign no exact line to the diference 
between the discrete and the concrete melody. It may however 
asist the purpose of system and nomenclature, to make an interme- 



A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF SONG. 607 

diate division, similar to that proposed in our sixth section, for the 
Inter-thoughtive or Reverentive style. We will then aply the 
term Mixed melody, to a style consisting in part of the constituents 
of the other two. 

From some very general descriptions, and some known particu- 
lars of the Greek song, it might be infered that its most esteemed 
melody was of this Mixed character, enriched with all the concrete 
graces of expresion, admisible into its simple structure. I speak 
of song, rendered touching, self-relying, and unambitious ; song, 
with its al-suficient melodial, andj as far as then known, its pecu- 
liar harmonic resources for delight j free from vain intrusion of 
hard-taught dificulties; and restricted to itself by the efective 
principles of Grecian taste. For we must supose, nay Ave know 
from a satirical record j there Avas a like cold caprice in composi- 
tion, and a like dificulty in execution sometimes shown-off for the 
profit of the Singer, and for the noisy excitement of an Athenian 
Audience, that at present so often slight the natural and universal 
feeling of the ear, to exalt the fantastic vanity of the fingers and 
the throat. 

In the intermediate style of Mixed melody, the simple dignity, 
pathos, grandeur, or gayety of the discrete, is combined with the 
more varied and expresive constituents of the concrete melody, 
forming a peculiar style of song. A style, which employed under 
the direction of feeling and taste, produces efects in the highest 
degree impresive and delightful. A style that has been, is now, 
and ever will be, the most generaly gratifying to the instinctive 
and estheticaly educated ear. For, while perceving and wonder- 
ing at muscular facility and precision, yet it rarely feels any efect 
from concrete flourishes, and agility in vocalization, striving to re- 
fine upon and to surpas itselfj and which requires the delightful 
melody of the ( Aria ' to preserve the fantastic manerism, and 
mongrel recitative of the Italian Opera from the sadnes of a 
meager audience^ except of those who go to look at one another's 
dreses, and to think of themselves. 

It has been thotj the Gantus planus of the early Christian 
Salmody, improved afterwards to the Ambrosian and the Grego- 
rian Chant, is a traditional descent of a form of Greek Temple- 
Music, thru the old Roman ritual. However this may be, there 



608 A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF SONG. 

is a striking analogy, both as to structure and efect, between the 
Diatonic melody, and the Plain-Chant, in its early simplicity. 
This Chant, we are told, employed but four lines of the staff in 
the range of its pitch ; the sucesion of its notes was by proximate 
degrees, in the radical pitch of a second ; it never set more than 
one note to a sylable ; and used but two divisions of time, the long 
and the short. In this acount, substitute the term Equable con- 
crete for that of Note, and the resemblance is in many points re- 
markable. The Plain-Chant is an example of what we have caled 
the discrete-song, and in its use had originaly, and when not dese- 
crated by ' modern improvements' of wider concrete and discrete 
intervals, and by afected graces j still has, in its holy purpose of 
worship and prayer, that deep and long-drawn note of solemn 
dignity, which is but a transcending degree of the character, given 
to epic and dramatic reading, and to parts of the Church-service, 
by the fulnes and quantity of an orotund voice, in the diatonic 
melody.* 

* "We have in the course of this Work, pointed out similarities between the 
principles of Music and of Elocution, and have shown their very materials or 
tunable constituents, with the exception of the Note, to be comon to both. 

The further we look into the Arts, the more closely we find them by their 
principles, related to each other: yet who will say, there is a resemblance 
between Architecture and Speech ? To the eye and ear of the Doorkeeper, 
who within the grandeur of the Capitol, was obliged to listen to Cicero, there 
could have been none. But turn an inquiring and reflective mind to a con- 
sideration of the causes that constitute, or create, a similarity between themj 
and observe how, in the analytic Perspective of a philosophic taste, their 
conditions aproach each other ; and with a still extended view, how, by the 
principles that direct them, they mingle into one. 

I have long perceved the analogy to which I here alude ; but beleving it 
might pass for a metaphoric extravagance, rather than an ilustration, I have 
not till this last moment, the date of the fourth Edition, dared to call the Dia- 
tonic Melody, the Doric order of Speech. In this country at least, I have 
met with none, so much interested in the Esthetic principles of these arts, as 
to wish to discover, or desire to be told their points of resemblance. When 
however, I think of a Doric Peripteral Temple with its marble-purity, 
brightly distinct in structure and outline, to the neighboring eye, yet still 
distinctly traceable in distant prospectj with its compendious Design at once 
upon my memory, in clearnes of image second only to reality j I see an am- 
bitious samenes in form and light, yet varied in line, and shadow, just to show- 
forth the striking elegance of its Unityj a Grandeur rising above heavines, 
till it apears in Graces and a Simplicity, with only such apropriate ornaments 



A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF SONG. 609 

Second. Of Concrete-Song. This melody, in its forms of into- 
nation, time, and force, is varied from the limits of the Mixed 
style, to that intricate and afected composition of the extreme 
Bravuraj which by turning words into vowels, destroys the mean- 
ing of language ; and by a continued whirling of these vowels, 
confounds every feeling excited by the more natural song. 

The means of expresion in the unexagerated forms of this melody 
include those of the Discrete and the Mixed ; with the adition of 
other more elaborate forms of intonation. The further use of the 
radical and median force on the rising and faling concrete, as well 
as on the wave, adds a briliant variety to its character. We have 
in the Bravuras and Volatas of this kind of song, all the extraor- 
dinary coloring of the compound stres, in the production of the 
shake, and of the endles run of Divisions on their course of stres 
and intonation. It likewise comands the powers of the Tremulous 
scale, both on the plaintivenes of the semitone, and the laughing 
movement of wider intervals. 

All the forms of expresion, both in the Concrete and the Dis- 
crete song, whether of the grave, the gay, or the plaintive ; and 
whether produced by pitch, time, vocality, or force, are to be con- 
sidered as independent of any purpose in thought or meaning: 
for it will be shown presently, that except in some acidental or 
habitual collections, song has, apart from the words which may 
acompany it, an imintelectual expresion altogether of its own. 
. As song employs in its composition, the expresional means of 
speech, it might be suposed that certain movements must have in 
each case an identical efect. Yet it is not always so. We have 
learned that some signs, as the semitone, the laughing and crying 
tremor, and long quantity, do represent the same state of mind 
in both : but many forms of intonation lose their meaning and 
force when separated from words, and transfered to song. On 

as make them harmonious parts of an undivided whole. "With this picture 
before me, it brings-up in related efect, the likenes of Koscius again upon 
the Stage, breaking his silence, with the gravity and fulnes of the thotive 
orotund ; and impresing the respectful ear by a simplicity in time and into- 
nationj varied only to give grace to its dignity ; and rising ocasionaly, with 
contrasted interval, and force, to beautify and not to destroy the plain and 
impresive unity of diatonic speech. 



610 A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF SONG. 

the subject of the vocal signs of thot and pasion, it was shownj 
their purpose is not only modified by conventional language, but 
is sometimes purely dependent upon it. This was ilustrated by 
reference to the voices of birds: and song afords a still more 
satisfactory proof. For as its elaborate structure does employ all 
those forms of concrete and radical pitch, and of the wave, which 
produce the expresion of speech, it would seem, we ought during 
the varied course of its melody, to be constantly recognizing the 
vocal signs of interogation, surprise, positivenes, sneer, contempt, 
and railery ; whereas the florid song which makes the freest use of 
these signs, never conveys any of these states except when joined 
to language that describes them. 

Song, nevertheles, without the use of words, may be powerfully 
expressive ; and it is so by the use of these very concretes, quan- 
tities, waves, and swelling streses, that give the thotive and pas- 
ionative meaning to speech. The expresion of song is produced 
in a maner peculiar to itself, and in very few, if any instances 
has relation to the thot or pasion of particular words or phrases. 
Persons who enjoy the melody of song must percevej the feelings 
created by it are so indefinite^ they are not able to refer them to 
any other source, than that of primary perception, or of subse- 
quent memory ; nor to reduce the expresion to anything more than 
certain clases of efects. 

Upon this subject I would ask two questions. Has song a sys- 
tem of expresion properly its own, and does our indefinite percep- 
tion of its forms arise from this system never having been analyzed 
and rendered familiar and specific by names ? Or does the ex- 
presion of song depend on some conection between its vocal move- 
ments, and those of speech ; the former asuming the agreeable 
efect of the latter, without their definite meaning ? 

By a comparison of the characteristics of speech and of song, 
it apears that song has a system of expression of its own, dis- 
tinct in most points from that of speech. If the Reader has fol- 
owed me atentively, he must admitj the vocal expresion of the 
latter is derived soley from the concrete and discrete intervals 
of intonation, with the other modes of the voice ; and that he 
has at least heard of the precepts for that expresion, if he has 
not the power of acurately executing them. Still we here ofer 



A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF SONG. 611 

in pardonable repetition, a few remarks on the expresion of both 
song and speech. 

And first. No thought, term, proposition or meaning is directly 
conveyed in song. By the melodial sucesion alone of its notes, it 
excites a state of mind, which we distinctively csAed feeling ; always 
agreeable, except under some acidental and pervertive circum- 
stances. In song we are further pleased with the vocality of its 
notes ; in which its prolongation, is more agreeable than in the 
concrete of speech. It is a question so inviting to dispute, that 
we will not stop to consider; whether these agreeable feelings are 
exclusively the direct result of the simple vocal impresion, or are in- 
directly derived from memory, and in a maner, conected with thdt. 
These feelings produced by the melodial sucesion of notes, and 
by their agreeable vocality in prolongation, are therefore peculiar 
to song. 

After the preceding view of the distinction between speech and 
song, we are prepared to hear, that a sucesion of intervals in song, 
when joined with the other modes of vocality, time, and force, and 
properly distributed, is, by the melodial relations of those intervals, 
marked by its notes, capable of exciting the feelings of Grandeur, 
Solemnity, Plaintiveness, Gayety, and Grace. And if to these be 
added a perception of Oddity, or what has been called the Gro- 
tesk, they will perhaps include all the clases of efects, that inde- 
pendently of any peculiarities of thdt and of the ear, seem to 
be within the expresive powers of song. We here exclude all 
those notional and false analogies, between sound and meaning, 
which j to try something like a transcendental metaphor^ are more 
remote than far-fetch' d, if a resemblance^ but infinitely distant, 
if at all a paralel ; such as are found in the music of ' Alexander's 
Feast/ * St. Cecilia's Day/ and the ' Ode on the Passions/ to- 
gether with not a few in Haydn's ' Creation/ Handel's l Messiah/ 
and thruout that once fashionable and serious folly, the ' Battle of 
Prague.' These pretensions and falsities hold the same relation 
to the real expresion of song, that we shall endeavor to show the 
pretensions and falsities of Recitative do to the truth of expresion 
in speech. 

Second. The agreeable expression of song by the mode of 
Pitch, consists in the comparison of one note, with others of a 



612 A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF SONG. 

proximate, or of a remote degree; for song by its protracted 
notesj and by its key, which definitely marks the places of the 
tones, and semitones in the scale, has in the fixed places of its 
notes, the means for comparing them one with another, that they 
may be heard under what has been considered, a kind of harmony 
in melodial succession.* 

On the effect of this melodial succession of notes alone j without 
the individual note itself exciting or conveying a thotive or pas- 
ionative state of mindj the pitch of song altogether depends for 
the means of producing agreeable Feelings of whatever kind. But 
the resource of this melodial sueesion of notes, speech does not 
posses. Its efects are derived from a power in the individual 
concrete, and individual discrete interval to expres thot and pasion, 
independently of a comparison with preceding or folowing con- 
cretes. 

Third. The expression of concrete, and of discrete intervals, 
in the melody of speech, difers both in character and cause, from 
that of the sueesion of the notes of song : tho each is, in its own 
way, variously agreeable, acording to the susceptibility of the ear 
and intelect of an audience. We have said the intonation of 
speech, derives its expresion, soley from the extent and direction 
of the single concrete and discrete interval, and the wave, asisted 
by the other modes of the voice. Plaintivenes is the efect of the 
single semitone ; interogation and wonder, of the single wider up- 
wardj anger and comand, of the single wider downward concrete ; 
dignity, of the wave of the second ; contempt and scorn, of the 
wider single or double waves : the expression being here derived 
altogether from the individual interval itself, and not from the 

* In the musical scale, the First, Third, Fifth, and Octave notes, when 
heard together, are said to be concordant: and Harmony to the ear, not its 
theory, is the perception of the efect of simultaneous concordant notes. 

Melody to the ear, regarding only the mode of Pitch, is the perception of 
the efect of certain relationships between sucesive notes. 

The efects of music arise then, from two conditions of its notes: one simul- 
taneous ; the other sucesive. 'But the individual notes which produce har- 
mony are so impresive, that when heard in sueesion, the ear can compare the 
instant-pased, with the instant-present note ; and thus perceve a harmonious 
relation between the presently audible and the memorial note. This is what 
I call in the text, harmony in melodial sueesion. 



A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF SONG. 613 

relation of one interval to another. For tho a Fifth, for example, 
is emphatically perceptible in speech, by its contrast with a second, 
in a diatonic melody, it is not that contrast which gives the ex- 
presion ; as the Fifth is alike interogative, both in a thoro inter- 
ogative sentence, where it is placed beside itselfj and when it is 
unrelated to any other interval, on a neighboring sylable. And 
the same may be said of every expresive concrete, either solitary 
or in series. The expresion of speech, again to repeat the propo- 
sition, is therefore derived from the efect of the concrete and dis- 
crete intervals alone : as speech having no System of Key to 
direct its progresions, cannot excite musical feeling by the harmony 
of melodial sucesions : for the perpetual sliding of its concretes, 
afords no stationary point nor continuous level line, by which a 
concord with any other point or line might be recognized. The 
wordsj second, third, fifth, octave, semitone, and wave, that in 
song convey the meaning of a melodial relationships designate in 
speech, only concrete and discrete intervals ; which in themselves, 
denote thot and pasion, by their extent and direction, not by any 
harmonic or melodial relations to each other. 

We have saiclj the sucesions alone, of melody in song, with their 
varieties in time, and without embracing thot or meaning, produce 
its peculiar feeling or expresion. Hence the permutations in the 
order of these notes for an agreeable sucesion would seem to be 
inumerable. Bat the more agreeable sueesionsj whether they afect 
the mind instinctively by the ear, or habit, or by conection with 
feelings derived from other sensesj might perhaps with their apro- 
priate expresion, be reduced to a few melodial phrases, and be 
described and named. As far as I have been able to asign the 
agreeable efects of melody, to such phrases, the forms do not seem 
to be numerous ; and are realy so simple, and comparatively so 
few, that they probably have all been known and used in song, 
from immemorial time; yet their intermingling sucesions, as it 
has hapened with the long unknown and aparently confused 
phrases of intonation in speechj have to this day, prevented their 
being separately perceved and named. 

Composers are often charged with plagiary of certain agreeable 
pasages of melody. But all these pasages, or Phrases of Expres- 
sion in song, as they may be caled, have long been familiar to the 



614 A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF SONG. 

ear, and enjoyed by Feeling ; and have come down to us with- 
out known Authorship or Date. On the subject of this combi- 
nation of notes into agreeable phrases in the melodial sucesion 
of song, there can be no more originality, than on that of the 
combination of the elements into sylables of speech; which in 
all their permutations, have in time, and among nations, already 
been nfade. The mass of Composers^ like the mass of Writers, 
respectively, again and again borow and repeat the commonplace 
phrases of melody and of thotj and only a few, like Bacon and 
Shakspeare, or Haydn and Mozart, choicely select and combine 
those striking, if not original thots, in one case, and expresive 
melodial phrases in the other, which, in their exalted acordance 
with nature and truth, are so far above being vulgarized by gen- 
eral adoption and imitation, as to seem to be always new, and 
destined to please forever. 

Under the class of phrases of expresion in song, are included 
those groups of notes called Graces. And here, speech has nothing 
directly corresponding to the Beat, the Turn and Shake. Per- 
haps however, there is a remote analogy, in efect, between the 
median stress of speech, and the apogiature ; between the Tremolo, 
and the prolongation of the tremor on one line of pitch ; between 
the anticipative character of the prepared cadence, and the suspen- 
sion of the shake preceding a close on the key-note of song. But 
why has song been without a classification of other phrases, with 
their peculiar and no less striking expresion, than that of its 
named ornamental Graces ? 

That song has its own peculiar expression, in no way connected 
with thot, or meaning of any kind, is proved by a well-known 
fact in lyric history. It has long been the practice of song writers, 
to adapt their verses to the music of existing airs ; nor, with an 
exception of the use of the major and the minor modej of the 
allegro and penseroso, does this seem to have been done, under 
the asumed fitnes of certain melodial phrases of 'the Air, to the 
thot or pasion of the words ; language of every diferent meaning 
and expresion being adapted to the same air, and receved as satis- 
factory, without the least perception of a want of congruity.* 

* From inumerable instances of this principle, we select the folowing. There 
is a celebrated English Air aplied to the drinking songj When Blbo went down 



A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF SONG. 615 

It was formerly stateclj that the fulest efect of speech, is pro- 
duced by a union of the natural sign with the conventional. 
Others are left to inquire, whether a triple union of the natural 
and conventional sign of thot and pasion in speech, with the 
peculiar expresion of song, may not give the highest delight to 
the mind and the ear. 

I have here furnished some desultory observations and reflec- 
tions, in answer to the questions above proposed ; and have en- 
deavored to show that song has an expresion of its own : upon 
the truth of which, if the subject deserves it, others must finaly 
decide. 

We are now able to comprehend, why persons who sing with 
the greatest execution, are, under* the present state of vocal in- 
struction, rarely or never good readers. One cause may be found, 
in the diference of the respective movements; and the frequent 
want of a full comand over the equable concrete in all its varieties 
of time, by singers, who rarely employ it except for the short 
quantities of the comic song. The principal cause however, why 
those distinguished by great vocal flexibility in elaborate compo- 
sition, are generaly very indiferent actors j is that such intricate 
execution is always made with a sacrifice of the proper expression 
of speech. We have learned, that the discrete-melody of song 
has in its use of certain modes and forms of the voice, an aproxi- 
mate identity with the expresion of speech : and however the 
mixed melody, by its varied concretes and its radical skips, may 
have only a remote resemblance to the efect of those same con- 

to the regions belorv. Bibo in crosing the Styx, culed-out to be rowed back, 
for his soul was thirsty. Be quiet, said Charon, you were drunk when you 
died. 

Bow me back then, cried Bibo, I knew not the pain, 
And if drunk when I died, let me die once again. 

This is the air selected for more than one of our Liberty so?igs. The burden 
of one is the same in measure and intonation withj 'Eow me back then, cried 
Bibo.' 

The star-spangled baner, O ! long may it wave 

O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave. 

Thus the Bacanal and the Patriot find the melody equaly expresive ; the 
one for his revels, the other of his G-lory. 



616 A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF SONG. 

stituents in speech, yet it has a peculiar and delightful expresion 
of its own. But the Bravura-artifice of the throat, ocupied only 
with variety and wonder, admits into its purposes neither the 
dignified and graceful feeling of song, nor the thotful nor pas- 
ionative expresion of speech. In it, long and short quantities, 
the radical explosion and the median swell, the diatonic sucesiou 
and the chromatic, the plaintive and the laughing tremor, the 
various forms of the wave, concrete transitions and discrete skips 
from the deepest bass to a piercing falsete, the compound stres in 
all its forms of shake and division, are made to play with each 
other in every variety of permutation. And as the voice like the 
throat of the mocking-bird, mingles all its posibilities, without 
regard to expresive design, the singer thereby confusing that in- 
stinctive conection between thot and pasion, and their vocal sign, 
which good speaking always requires^ and between feeling and a 
certain sucesion of notes, which should also be the means of ex- 
presion in song ; so the habitual practice of the ambitious and un- 
meaning Bravura, destroys, in a great degree, a perception of the 
original signs of feeling in song ; and by its artificial dificulties 
and contortions, destroys the comand over the means, originaly 
ordained for the expresion both of speech and of song. If I 
had the oportunities of European experience, I might speak with 
greater knowledge and precision; but far as I have observed j 
singers who excel in the florid execution, acquired by the mere 
drill of the Conservatorio, and exercised in the rotine of the 
Concert-room or the Stage, are not often gifted with that delicacy 
of mental perception which sometimes acompanies the organization 
of a musical ear. For the temperament of a singer can as readily 
be perceved, in his peculiar management of time, stress, and into- 
nation, as the thot and pasion of an original and independent 
writer can be gathered from his style. 

What is called a musical ear, seems to depend on an inscrutable 
instinct, and the exercise of atentive observation by this sense : 
and tho our history indicates, that high acomplishments in elocu- 
tion must always be grounded on its discriminations ; still the 
training of the ear, by those who excel in the afected dificulties of 
the Florid song, and the formal character both of taste and feel- 
ing thereby rendered habitualj must in a great measure, destroy 



A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF RECITATIVE. 617 

the collection between the state of mind and its vocal sign, consti- 
tuting the proper expresion of speech. There have been Actors, 
avIio under an enlightened system of Elocutionary instruction, 
might have entered into the philosophy both of passion and 
speech j and who, by discipline, could have reached the flexibility 
of florid execution in the singing voice. And yet we have cause 
to beleve, that had this power over the intricacies of song, been 
habitualy exerted, particularly under the absorbing vanity, so apt, 
in this case, to acompany suces, it must have destroyed the comand 
over the equable concrete, which would have enabled them to give 
their consumate intonation to the language of the tragic poet. 
We will supose, Mrs. Siddons, with a nice perception of Time and 
Tune, might perhaps have joined- voice with the incomparable 
Mara, in the expresive songs of Handel or Mozart, without im- 
pairing her power over Shakspeare. But she would have been 
lost forever to all the influence of thot and pasion over speech, had 
she been trained with Catalani, to that extreme of vocal execution 
which is said to have outstriped the conventional means of nota- 
tion, within the wonder-serving inventions of the composers of 
the day. 



OF RECITATIVE. 

The term Recitative is aplied to the intonation of certain dra- 
matic and vocal compositions. It had its name from being em- 
ployed for narative or recital, in contradistinction to the intonation 
of song, which was apropriated to expres the mental state of Feel- 
ing. Recitative is however employed at present in the Italian 
Opera, and other compositions, as the suposed means of speaking 
expresion, as well as for the comon purposes of the dialogue. 

Nothing has puzled musical logicians more than the atempt to 
define this term. 

Rousseau, in his dictionary, speaks of it thus : ' Recitative, A 
discourse recited in a musical and harmonious tone. It is a 
method of singing which aproaches nearly to speech, a declama- 
40 



618 A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF RECITATIVE. 

tion in music, in which the musician should imitate as much as 
posible, the inflections of the declaiming (or the speoMng) voice/ 

Busby gives the folowing definition : ' Recitative. A species 
of musical recitation, forming the medium between Air and rhe- 
torical Declamation, and in which the composer and performer, 
rejecting the rigorous rules of time, endeavor to imitate the inflec- 
tions, acent, and emphasis, of natural speech/ 

One calls ' Recitative, a kind of singing that difers but little 
from ordinary pronunciation/ 

Another says, ' Recitative is speech delivered thru the medium 
of musical intonation/ 

And others, still more general, describe it as, ' singing speech/ 
and, i speaking song/ 

Before we are taught what we require in knowledge, we do not 
perceve how little satisfies us : and altho we have yet much to 
learn on the subject of the voice, we have taut ourselves enuf, to 
authorize the remark, that all these definitions, written to instruct, 
contain no further explanation, than might be given by the hum- 
blest auditor at an Oratorio. By the terms of all these defini- 
tions, Recitative is somehow made-up of speech and song. As the 
elementary movements of song had, in a degree, been known and 
described, the meaning of its term might have been inteligible. 
But, regarding speech, on which these definitions are in part con- 
structed, let us hear Rousseau, under the very article we have 
quoted. ' The inflections of the speaking voice are not bounded 
by musical intervals. They are uncontroled, and imposible to be 
determined.' 

A knowledge therefore of the construction of Recitative, by that 
of its mingled or interwoven constituents, song and speech, the 
later of which is here declared to be uterly inapreciablej must 
acording to Rousseau at least, require some other powers of com- 
prehension, than we at present posses. For having no perception 
of the characteristics of one of the constituents, our knowledge of 
Recitative seems to have been, if I may be alowed to jest, not un- 
like that of our personal acquaintance with the heads of a family, 
when the father is maried to an inaudible, intangible and invisible 
woman. 

In general description, Speech, Song, and Recitative, are varied 



A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF RECITATIVE. .619 

forms of intonation; deriving their specific differences from the 
number, kind, and combination of their respective vocal move- 
ments. Having described the melodial peculiarities of Speech, and 
of Song, which are the only divisions of vocal expresion founded 
on instinctive indications, let us by the light of our history, en- 
deavor to point out the characteristics of the artificial intonation 
of Recitative. 

The Plainest style of Recitative, for its style varies, is charac- 
terized by the folowing construction. 

First. It has no systematic rythmus or musical measure in the 
progresion of melody. 

Second. It never gives more than one note to a single sylable ; 
song sometimes aplying several short notes over one. 

Third. It employs the protracted radical and protracted vanish 
and the wave, on long quantitiesj and ocasionally the equable 
concrete on short ones. 

Fourth. Its melodial intervals, or the discrete movements of its 
radical pitch, are of every extent, both in upward and downward 
transition. 

Fifth. It employs the means of time, force, vocality, abruptnes 
and intonation. 

These are the simple constituents of Plain Recitative : and the 
folowing are some of the principles of their aplication. 

The melodial succesion variously consists of the monotone, and 
of other phrases^ in every interval of radical pitch. It makes no 
systematic distinction between a diatonic groundwork, and the con- 
trasted emphasis of wider intervals, which gives efective power, 
dignity, and expresion to speech : the sucesions of its pitch being 
rather acording to the promiscuous mingling of song. I have not 
recognized, in what is caled unaccompanied recitative, an aplica- 
tion of the doctrine of key ; its melodial relationships having in 
this respect the characteristic of speech. The cadence or full 
pause is made by phrases of every form, from the monotone, to 
the rising and faling discrete octave ; the curent melody consisting 
of the protracted radical, or protracted vanish, with an ocasional 
rising and faling concrete and wave. All these constituents are so 
intermingled and aranged by the composer, as not only to suit 
that caprice, he may miscal Expresion, but also to give that order 



620 A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF RECITATIVE. 

to the constituents^ he may choose to call Melody. If however 
we cease to beleve upon authority, that Recitative is wonderfuly 
expresive, we will then begin to reflect, how this suposed variety, 
founded on wider intervals and waves, with a frequent recurence 
of upward and downward skips, and with so many mounting and 
plunging cadences, must, by its constant and violent obtrusions, be 
shockingly monotonous to the Natural Science of an ear, acustomed 
to a true vocal expresion, under the easy and gratifying variety of 
cultivated speech. 

Such being the structure of Recitative, its expresion can have 
but little resemblance to that of the speaking voice. Comparing 
its plainest form above described, with the intonation of speech, 
which it pretends to borowj its only means of expresion on indi- 
vidual sylables, for its curent has none, are included under the 
folowing heads. 

First. The expresion of slow and of rapid uterance ; and of long 
and of short quantity.. 

Second. That of the degrees of force ; both as to emphasis and 
drift. 

Third. Of vocality ; particularly of gutural vibration, and the 
orotund. 

Fourth. Of intonation ; by the ocasional employment of the dis- 
crete rising fifth or octaye, for inquiry; of the downward skip, 
for positive or imperative declaration ; and of the wave of the 
semitone and the minor third, for plaintivenes. But even these 
are so iregularly mingled with contra-meaning constituents, that 
like the same constituents in the throat of the mocking-bird, they 
lose much, if not all their expresive character. Nor are they 
aplied according to invariable rule : for I have heard true inter- 
ogative words, intonated with a simple monotone, or ditone ; de- 
clarative questions with a downward fifth, or octave ; and forcible 
imperatives, with the widest ascending intervals. This, with the 
1 Little Book ? and pencil in hand, was noted at the Opera. 

Plain Recitative at once strikes the comon ear as very remark- 
able, and so distinct from speech and song, that its structure, and 
its character^ for it can scarcely be regarded as expresive to a 
natural earj must when compared with the structure and expresion 
of speech and of song, give a definite perception of these three 



A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF RECITATIVE. 621 

vocal functions, and enable ns to point-out what is peculiar to 
each. We perceve, that one cannot asume the character of another, 
without droping its oavii character, and becoming altogether that 
other : and that definitions which set-forth Recitative, as a musi- 
cal intonation of speech, or an engrafting of the inflections of 
speech on song, or of song on speech, are without either clearnes 
or truth. We can further perceve, that as speech never employs 
the protracted notes, but always the equable concrete, or its modi- 
fications, it does not, under this broad distinction, partake in efect, 
of the character of song or of recitative ; and both these, using 
the protracted notes, are more nearly related; and with slight 
change do mutualy pass into each other. And so it hapens, that 
the singer often gradualy pases from the above described Plain 
Recitative, to the florid execution, by freely introducing all the 
intonations of song. Hence instead, of this plain construction 
with its few constituents, he introduces to a greater or less extent, 
the rising and the faling concrete in all their forms; tremors, 
notes, waves, and even divisions and shakes : in short, while aply- 
ing these constituents, under a bared and rythmic time, he does, 
in efect, produce the full characteristic of song itself. 

Of these three forms of intonation, it apears, that Speech and 
Song, both by construction and efect, are most unlike each other; 
that even the plainest Recitative, by construction more nearly re- 
sembles song, and in its execution by vocalists, most readily runs 
into it ; that Speech has the most extended and delicate powers 
of expresing thot and pasion; by the union of a conventional 
language with an instinctive intonation, and a perfect adaptation 
of one to the other ; that Song, by the sucesion of its notes, and 
concrete intervals, and other forms of intonation, together with 
vocality, quantity, and force, -has, exclusively of words, its own 
peculiar maner of exciting feelings of grandeur, pathos, gayety, 
and grace; and that Recitative, which, by one of the not unfre- 
quent delusions of perception, was originaly introduced, and has 
since been continued for centuries, as embracing within itself the 
characteristic expresion of both speech and song, does, by this 
vain efort to join two incompatible functions, realy destroy the 
peculiar and delightful character of each. 

Composers may among themselves have framed rules for a con- 



622 A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF RECITATIVE. 

ventional meaning in Recitative, to which being long acustomed, 
they may have come at last to beleve them to be the rules of 
instinctive expresion. If those, not under the influence of habit, 
do sometimes listen with pleasure to Recitative, or say they doj is 
it not from this vocal Odity having been invented, or revived in 
modern Italyj Italy has, thereupon, asumed to give law to the 
musical world ; or from its being expected at the Opera ; or care- 
lessly heard, in anticipation of the suceding Air ? Such influences 
too often pervert our perception, and reconcile us to a vitiated 
taste. Besides, it is as far, in the present state of the human 
mind, from being true, in Art, as it is in Governmentj that an 
alowed dictatorial authority, except in the saving-energy of a des- 
perate case, is a protection against eror and coruption. The Archi- 
tecture of Italy, with a sort of prescriptive right to direct the 
world, has in most of its departments, from the old Roman, down- 
ward, done as much violence to the principles of unity, grandeur, 
simplicity, order, and cautious variety j as the false pretensions of 
Recitative have done to the true and beautiful system of vocal 
expresion both in speech and song. 

After Recitative, by some capricious straining after novelty, 
was introduced, it became an object with the reflective part of its 
votaries, as well it might, to find some ground to justify its use. 
With this view, it was by a strange conceit, clased among the 
Imitative arts ; and its peculiar intonation was suposed to" be a 
refined copy of comon speech, raised to the 'Beau IdeaF of vocal 
expresion. 

The folowing free translation of an extract from an article by 
Marmontel, in the French Encyclopedia of Diderot, under the 
word Recitative, describes this • theory. 7 ' When the Italians pro- 
posed to give a melody to theatric declamation, the purpose in 
joining music with it, like the purpose of exalting prose into 
poetry, was to embelish Nature in imitating her. In other words, 
to give to declamation a character more agreeable to the ear, and 
if posible, more exciting to the feelings than that of natural speech ; 
without however, altering too far, the form of the Archetype ; but 
so ordering the refined imitation, as not to obscure the purpose and 
means of the original/ And again 3 'If then it is true, that song, 
like verse in relation to prose, does embelish speech in imitating it, 



A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF RECITATIVE. 623 

thereby throwing an elegant ilnsion over its character, we should 
not reject this aditional pleasure of taste ; and whoever is endowed 
with a delicate ear, will not complain, on hearing speech delivered 
in a singing voice.' 

We are sorry to differ from M. Marmontel : and tho we may 
not have that delicate ear, and therefore may have no right to 
complain, yet with a taste acquired in the school of Nature, we 
cannot aprove. And here, notwithstanding an early resolution, 
only to observe and record, to which however I have not been 
able always to adherej I feel myself compeled to ofer a transient 
argument, in disenting from the unfounded notions on this 
subject. 

The theory of Imitation asumed comon conversation, which it 
caled the c natural tonej' to be the archetype or patern. The 
more deliberate and impresive style of the theater, and of public 
oratory, was caled Declamation ; and was the First remove in ' im- 
itation' from the l natural tone. 7 This declamation, when Chanted 
by the voice alone, or with the instrumental company of something 
like a varied drone-bass, was caled Plain Recitative ; and its fur- 
ther remove from comon speech, and aproach towards song, was 
the Second degree of imitation. Recitative acompanied by instru- 
ments, in a barred and rythmic harmony, formed the Third de- 
gree of imitation j a still further remove from the i natural tone/ or 
comon speech : and Song, or what is called Air, was suposed to 
have the least resemblance to it. 

By the light of our history, the Reader may perhaps perceve the 
falacy of this asumption. Language is a sign of the mind, not a 
copy of it. Comon speech then, is the sign of thot and pasion, and 
in no meaning of the term, an imitation of them. Declamation 
is speech itself, in a more impresive use of its constituents. Plain 
recitative employs some intonations, not used in speech, and makes a 
false or garbled aplication of those that arej and consequently is no 
imitation. Acompanied recitative has still greater diferences from 
speech than the Plainj tho of similar character and efect. Air, or 
Song having its own peculiar use of notes and intervals, with its 
own peculiar expression, can have no resemblance whatever to 
speech ; and cannot therefore be an imitation of it. Thus we 
learn that comon speech is an original function, planed for itself 



624 A BEIEF ANALYSIS OF RECITATIVE. 

alone ; and to speak figuratively, only copied, if at all, from Na- 
ture's secret patern of its purpose : nor has Nature herself ever 
copied anything fro. a it. But conceitful man, in trying to beau- 
tify, by imitating her as he suposedj at last blundered into Recita- 
tive ; the true or contorted archetype of which is not to be found 
in the natural voice of all this peopled earth. And if drawn by 
Plato's First Philosophy from the skies j when, in the Sacred name 
of Urania, has any metaphysical audience of the heavenly choir, 
ever reported an example of its vocal odity and monotonous 
afectation ! 

Another opinion, asumed to justify the use of Recitative, wasj 
that as speech is so widely diferent from song, in its efects upon 
the ear ; and as the more acute and forcible sound, and stronger 
contrast of intonation, in song, together with the peculiar and dif- 
erent kind of expresion, are much more striking than the 'natural 
tone/ it was suposed, there should be some intermediate function, 
partaking of the character of each, to unite their sucesion, with 
less violence to the ear. The instances of things, both in nature 
and art, in favor of this medium of gradual transition, are not 
more numerous than the instances of abrupt changes that opose it ; 
and as no argument can therefore be drawn from this source, we 
must consider the case in itself. 

On the ground then of our history of the voice, we cannot ad- 
mit, there is the least plea in good taste, or the demands of the ear, 
for this interposition of Recitative. How does the principle aply 
to that universal function of Speech, the Equable Concrete, when 
a gradual vanish leads us out of the full and abrupt opening of the 
radical, and not gradualy from silence, into itf Do the first notes 
of song, in a favorite melody, ever require more than their own 
delightful impresion, to introduce them from silence or from 
speech ? Who, in the Church-service, calls for a motly midway 
of intonation, in pasing from prayer and benediction, to the chant 
and the anthem? And what, in the decent pride of consistency, 
becomes of this principle of gradual transition, when the voice 
pases abruptly from silence to the striking peculiarity of this very 
Recitative ; and again, when in an unknown language, it pases 
from this giberish, both of words and expresion, to the deafening 
jargon of melody, harmony, and articulation, in the over-strained 



A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF RECITATIVE. 625 

voices and instruments of a full Operatic chorus ? * The design 
of this notion of mediation, to prevent the violent contrast between 
speech and song, has rendered the whole course of the Operaj 
when not releved by the ocasional variety of the delightful Aria, 
and by pasages of exquisite orchestral harmonyj a continued mo- 
notony, to him whose ear has not been contorted by fashion, and 
who admits our view of the principles of Drift ; for these show 
that in speech, the ear is guarded against the false and too frequent 
use of wide and expresive intervals, by such a use being always 
monotonous and ofensive. Nature has no unnecesary chasms in 
her designsj tho the works of man are full of them. When there- 
fore he comes to study her purpose in the voice, he will find no 
gap between speech and song, to be pased by the Ponticello* no, 
the Ponte-rotto of Eecitative.f 

* We had lately an instance in one of our Cities, of what an Italian Opera 
can play-off upon the ignorance or inatention of an audience^ by the first and 
second Tenor, and Bass, severaly singing and reciting their parts in Italian, 
German, and French. The next day the amateurs and critics were very in- 
dignant, at the Troupe-leader's impudence. Strange complaint ! when to an 
English ear, the whole in ' choice Italian,' is impudent enough, without ading 
two other jargons, that nobody was atentive enough to perceve. 

f In refering above, to the undistinguishable words and expresion of Reci- 
tative, in a foreign language ; and to the deafening vowels of an Opera-Chorus, 
I do not so particularly alude to the Italian language, as to that uninteligible 
plain-English, which seems to be the comon mother-tongue of so many of its 
singers. I lately heard in translation, the Oratorio of ' Joseph and his Breth- 
ren ; ' and in Solo, Duett, and Chorus^ Soprano, Tenor, and Bass, I did not 
recognize, with the exception of now and then an interjection, twenty words, 
so distinctly, as to know what they were. They had beter have been in Japa- 
nese, for there would then have been no vexatious longing for what they 
pretended to be, and no endeavor to translate them. As to that clashing of 
vocality, and discord in intonation, the necesary vocal vices of a vociferating 
crowdj ' Quousque tandem abutere, Coryphasus, patientia nostra ? ' When will 
the Mob-like Chorus of the Opera cease its confounding uproar? For while 
each and all, in musical strife, are straining both voice and instrument into 
one time-beaten noisej who has ever heard a smoothly moderated note, or an 
articulated word from any one of them ? This is not the choice of uncorupted 
nature in the human ear. It belongs to the whooping savage of an early age. 
In our own time, it comes from the Composer and the Audience reciprocaly 
vitiating each other's taste. And it only adds another to the unumbered in- 
consistencies of the mind and the senses, when in Christian Countries, after 
weekly returns, in our Churches, of delight at the impresive grandeur and 
grace of the subdued harmony of the Choir ; and after once hearing the refined 
41 



626 A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF RECITATIVE. 

From the violence ofered by Recitative, to our vocal-habits, St. 
Evremond long ago formaly questioned its claims to the merits of 
propriety, and taste. This is a very strong motive ; for surely, no 
one ever did recognize or enter-into the expresion of this extraor- 
dinary intonation, if he had not by the authority, or the daily 
practice of the Conservatorio, been driled out of the instinct of 
a natural ear, into a forced belief that it is the 'only Artistic 
style for displaying the elevated character of dramatic expresion. 
But this argument, like that against many other things at first very 
shocking, may be refuted by custom and time. Our objection is 
drawn from another source. It has been shown, that speech being 
founded on a universal and identical meaning and practice among 
mankind, has a system of verbal and vocal means, for represent- 
ing the states of mind, often perverted and corupted, but never 
overruled and changed to a diferent system; that song, like in- 
strumental music, has forms of intonation altogether its own, for 
the expresion only of what we caled Feeling, and totaly inde- 
pendent of verbal signs. From a close observation of these dis- 
tinctions, and a studious search after any mode of the vocal signs, 
which for human purposes, might be admisible, we have insisted, 
that besides these two functions, speech and song, the voice has 
no other universal means of expresion ; that from their separate 

solemnity of the Choral Prayer in Masaniello, we can bear to be deafened by 
the brazen-racket of a certain red-headed scene in Norma, as ' got up ' in our 
Country. 

It may be said, ' there is a style apropriate to the Church.' And so, it is 
equaly proper, that in every place music, in its parts, should be distinctly 
heard ; its expresion unconfusedly felt ; and the drum of the ear not to be torn 
by its unmerciful violence. But further, the critic tells us, this scene in 
Norma presents the true vocal and military costume, and 'carroty-locks,' of 
the time and place in which the action is laid. Be it so. Are we therefore 
in any way, to sacrifice taste to an outlandish costume in sight, or scent, or 
sound? And because some shouting Celts, like beings of a Hoter clime,- 
'clashed on their sounding shields the din of war,' and are alowed, 'highly 
to rage, and hurl defiance ' against civilized ears, upon a modern Stage ; how 
could we blame an Author who, in search of novelty, should locate his Opera 
among a Horde of Tartars, and who, with reference to the dramatic costume, 
and to the truth of his story, should bring his Soprano, Tenore and Basso 
asolutoj the Reader alowing the homely similitude and phrase^ to 'wet their 
whistles ' for a Trio, over a steaming caldron of the usual daintiest flesh of 
their country ! 



A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF RECITATIVE. 627 

characters, their uses are not compatible with each other or inter- 
changeable; and that any atempt to institute other signs, for a just 
expresion of thot and pasion in one case, and of feeling, in the 
other, is like an endeavor to create anew the voice and mind of 
man. Our preceding objections are not in any degree drawn from 
a contest of our own personal with a prevailing conventional taste ; 
nor entirely, 'from the debatable ground, of the violence ofered at 
first to the unacustomed ear : for we have endeavored to found 
them upon a survey of the respective means and purposes of 
speech and song ; and thereby to show, that the modern invention 
of Recitative, which as a i refined copy of theatric declamation/ 
was designed to efect a more exalted expresion, by engrafting song 
on speech, is, by the light of analysis, and the test of an unen- 
slaved earj after all, but a fiction, and therefore by the doom of 
all fictional pretension, ought to be a failure. 

This conclusion will certainly be considered by the Masters of 
music, and their world of folowers, as highly audacious : but it 
has been thot upon, much longer with reference to truth, than to 
opinion; and we apeal from prescriptive prejudice, and the in- 
flexibility of the musical mind, to a liberal and a docile intelectual- 
ear, instructed by the history of an inflexible ordination in the 
uses of the human voice. But notwithstanding all our objections, 
Recitative will still continue to be a fashionable and therefore self 
suficient delight of the Opera; just as the artificial taste for Alco- 
hol and its asociate, that Nauseous Weed, will, among craving 
and restles wanderers in perception, regardles of the warning and 
the penalty of disease and death, continue to suply the place of 
self-contented purposes, in productive ocupation, and in educated 
thot. 

We owe the modern creation, or suposed revival of Recitative, 
in part, to the fatal influence of that vampire of Classic authority, 
which, while faning us into a learned and vain-glorious stupefac- 
tion, has for ages, on more subjects than one, been drawing out 
the life-blood of our intelectual independence. The ignorance of 
both the Greeks and the Romans, upon the subject of the voice, 
obliged them to describe their limited perceptions, by loose ex- 
planation and indefinite metaphor ; and we have been contented, 
in this as in some other of their arts, to take a reoord of the 



628 A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF RECITATIVE. 

poverty of their knowledge, as the historic scraps of a system, 
regarded by the modern scholar, if it was not by themselves, as 
little -short of perfection. The learned world has teazed itself 
into despair, by atempts to discover, wherein consisted the inimi- 
table charm of Greek poetical recitation ; thereby to ilustrate the 
expresive means of that i melodious language/ which when writers 
on the human voice shall broadly observe and reflect on their sub- 
ject, they will admit to be very little more melodious, or as they 
will then mean, more rythmic than their own. 'Among the Greeks/ 
says Rousseauj and his clasical scholarship and musical-philosophy 
may well represent the rest in this matter^ ' among the Greeks, 
all their poetry was in recitative.' And againj * The Greeks could 
sing in speaking, but among us, we must either sing or speak ; we 
cannot do both at the same time.' With such a miraculous physi- 
ology, no wonder, there should have been modern altars to this 
still ' Unknown God ? of the power and perfection of ancient 
speech : nor that Pulci the poet, in reciting his Morgante Mag- 
giore, as we are told, at the table of Lorenzo de Medici, should 
have suposed himself to be the hapy agent of a needed revela- 
tion, of the method of Grecian dramatic-recitative, or of Homer's 
declamatory song. 

If there is any truth and consistency in naturej the human 
voice in its mechanism, its principles, and its uses for thot, and 
pasion, and for the Feeling of song, has been the same, wherever 
these states of mind have been the same. And as the earliest 
writings, and other records of the earliest nations, represent like 
characters of mind, to those existing at the present day, we must 
concludej if the Greeks did not use their voices, acording to the 
laws of nature, as we acknowledge and fulfil themj they must by 
our decision at least, have used them improperly ; and have de- 
feated the intention of those laws. When therefore, in the con- 
temptuous language of clasical scholarship, we are told, we cannot 
speak and sing at the same timej we, scholars of Nature and 
inquiry, must say, the Greeks could not speak and sing at the 
same time. 

Notwithstanding a universal confidence in the taste of the Greeks, 
we cannot beleve, they were free from gross and universal faults, 
in their Art of speech, on which they have left us neither method 



A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF RECITATIVE. 629 

nor rule : well knowing how they violated their own established 
principles, in some of their boasted, and recorded arts. 

The selfish and tasteles schemes of the Statesman, the unosten- 
tatious authority, and equal selfishnes of the Priesthood, and the 
inflexible formality of a Ceremonial worship, may, in the Vocal- 
Ritual, as well as in Temple- Architecture, and in Sculpture, have 
continued the enormities of some ruder age, or courted a time- 
serving variety in the fashion of newer faults ; all in flagrant, and 
therefore thotles inconsistency with their methodic principles of 
Fitness, Unity, Grandeur, Harmony, Proportion, and Grace. In 
proof, let us learn how this fitnes, and unity, and grandeur were 
mared, even by the renowned Phidias, in his renowned Minerva, 
by asigning her a labor of strength, not of wisdom, in balancing 
a victory on her palm ; with a sculptured form made up of ivory 
and gold, surounded by an enriched and costly farago of acessory 
decoration, all suitable perhaps to the i pomp and vanity ' of the 
Priest, and to the ignorant wonder of the Devotee ; but to the 
eye of an uncontroled Grecian Artist, presenting in material, or 
color, or acesory, or formj no unitizing relations, either of har- 
mony or contrast. Let us learn too, how fitnes and propriety were 
outraged by perching a statue aloft, on each angle of a Doric 
pediment ; and by striping the imaculate whitenes of an external 
entablature with some gaudy and dis-gracing paint. »In further 
and still existing proof, let us go ourselves to the celebrated Erec- 
theuni, on that al- observed Athenian Acropolis; and bearing in 
mind the unity, simplicity, order, proportion, and symmetry, which 
in a Peripteral Temple, impresed themselves, all at once, on the 
eye of the beholderj we must perceve those principles neglected 
in this unbalanced plan, as if unknown or forgoten ; a plan and 
superstructure confusing even to us, but to the reflective eye of a 
Grecian Artist, unbiased by the obligation of Conformity to the 
priesthood or the people, presenting only the distraction of unde- 
termined entrances, with ^respective symmetry of fronts, and 
flanks; of unequal and awkward elevations on a hill-side; and of 
excrescences, vainly claiming by some trifling merits in detail, to 
be uniting and co-expresive parts of a self-discordant whole. But 
we have not yet done with this ungrecian Erectheum. Its Cary- 
atid-portico, if designed as an emblem of Grecian enmity, has by 



630 A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF RECITATIVE. 

that enmity, betrayed a lapse of excelence in Grecian taste. We 
still see in columns changed to Car y an women, with the conceit of 
reeded draperies, how these ' Arts of Taste that civilize mankind/ 
while leading on to the grotesk, forgot their rules not only of unity, 
fitness, order and propriety, but of humanity itself; in recording 
an ungenerous and degrading vengeance to the memory of a falen 
foe. 

If we then weigh the ail-but faultles merits of Grecian taste, in 
its own balance, we may, from some overpoise of prejudice, or au- 
thority, sometimes find it wanting. On the subject of the voice, 
the Greeks having no oratorical physiology as we may call it, could 
have had no well-founded or influential rules. We are free there- 
fore to supose groser violations of taste in the practice of their 
Speech, than we find in the choice productions of some of their 
Arts, which we know to have been generaly directed by princi- 
ples deep-founded and exact. If the history of the voice, con- 
tained in this work, authorizes the conclusion, we may rest in a 
belief, that could we have a dreaming revelation of the maner 
of their hierophants, orators, players, sophists, street-criers, and 
school-boys, we would awake to record a chapter of criticism, very 
much like our fiftieth section, on the Faults of Readers in the 
nineteenth century. 

The style of that vocal perfection which the Roman eulogist, 
by the privilege of his poetry, figuratively ascribes to the inspira- 
tion of the Muse, may, in the chant of the Odeum, the declama- 
tions of the Theater, and the recitation of the Olympic Games, 
have been with the Greeks, a greater departure from the rule of 
nature, than they sometimes exhibited, in a departure from their 
high and all-sufficient principle of unity in Material, by the dis- 
cordant asemblage of gold, and ebony, marble, ivory and wood in 
their most celebrated statues : or in the violation of their own 
eternal rules of simplicity, grandeur, unity, decorum, and grace, 
exhibited in the Erectheumj placed, as it would seem, to make its 
faults more glarings placed in 'audacious neighborhood/ beside 
the all-surpasing Parthenon. 

I return from this digresion, to remark, that ignorant as we are 
of the real vocal practice of the Greeks, the Reader who has aten- 
tively considered and who comprehends the descriptions in this 



A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF RECITATIVE. 631 

esay, will be satisfied to conjecture for himself, what they did if it 
was wrong; and to decide what it was, if they knew, and did 
what is right. 

If then Signor Pulci did delight the adulated and munificent 
Lorenzo, by the recovery of some lost conventicle or canting tune, 
in vogue with the ancient Altar and the Stagej it might alow the 
conjecture, that some Recitative-coruption of speech had come 
down by tradition from Homer, or Tyrteus, or was in later days, 
by some capricious influence, imposed upon the servile ear : just 
as many of the laws of musical expresion are in this generation, 
overborne with like distortion, by the inveterate dogmas of the 
composer, the masked tyranny of fashion, and the consenting 
slavery of mankind.* 

* At an early stage of these inquiries, I colected a few materials on the 
subject of Greek Aeent : and then contemplated subjoining to this esay, some 
remarks upon it. But perhaps the obscurity, inconsistencies, and meager 
philosophy of this woried topic of clasical heresy and faith, are now sufi- 
ciently aparent, by the light of our preceding analysis. The self-delusions 
of national, like those of personal vanity, are peculiar to no age or people: 
and one can see about him every day, enuf of the boast of empires, and of 
men, to make him scrutinize the rolls of fame, blazoned by the same genus 
of vain-glory and of credulity, two thousand years ago. 

"We know all the stories about barbarian ambasadors being delighted with 
the music alone, of a language they did not comprehend : and of that uni- 
versal acutenes and 'proud judgment of the ear,' which made the Athenian 
herb-women and porters speak with all the purity of the Academy. Yet we 
should have other proof than the report of gramarians: and should find them 
writing with more fulnes and precision, on an art they are said to have known 
and practiced so well, before we can beleve, that on this subject, the Greeks 
were at all superior to ourselves ; and if they did ' speak and sing at the same 
timej ' they were not, when we except the singing-speech of the Quakers, even 
below us, in the proper uses of the voice. 

If one should be disposed to beleve in the vocal perfection of the Greeks, 
on any other than their own testimony, he might well question the authority 
of their Roman eulogists : since they themselves, the pupils of the Greeks, 
display no better analysis and system in their institute of elocution. We may 
fairly estimate their discrimination, when with the same pen that deals out 
the extravagancies of praise upon the Oratorical Action of their masters, they 
gravely give us, as proof too of their own nicety in vocal science, the story 
of one of their famous orators having occasion for a Pitch-pipe, to enable him 
to recognize his own voice, as the ignorant populace thot, and affectedty to 
govern his melod} r , by the more accurate perceptions of a slave, who now and 
then blew this little regulating trumpet at his elbow ! ! 



632 A BEIEF ANALYSIS OF RECITATIVE. 

Here I conclude the cursory view of the physiological func- 
tions of Song and Recitative : having avoided therein, everything 
like a practical aplication of the subject. Some one beter qualified 
than myself may be disposed to prosecute the inquiry. In the 
first part of this Work, the vocal signs of expresion in Speech are 
set-forth by an elementary description of their particular modes 
and forms. An analysis of the forms of expresion in Song, by 
the light of that description, and acording to the hints here thrown- 
out, would be interesting, and might be sucesful. Nothing could 
give me more pleasure than to asist in its development. But this 
would lead me from some other designs of duty ; and I have too 
impatient a perception of the wasted experience, and profitles 
notions which daily present themselves in the changeful erors 
of my Profesion, not to desire to use in its service, a Method 
of Philosophy which I hope will be found to have been efectual 
here. 

For causes known to more than to myself, but which others 
need not at present know, I laid aside a Practical work on Medi- 
cine, with the view of completing this : and I am now going to 
resume it. 



It is at the date of this sixth Edition^ forty years since the 
preceding sentence was writen, on the first Printing of this esay. 
After its publication, I did resume the subject to which I then 
aluded. Its broad design was aranged in early life ; and much 
of its detail was afterwards executed. Having however resolved 
to pursue that subject by observation alone ; and being unwiling 
either' to throw time away, or to be forced into wasteful conten- 

Should I be obliged to hold an opinion upon the subject of ancient acentj 
the fixed apropriation of an acute, grave, and circumflex rise, fall, and turn 
of the voice, to individual sylables, being uterly inconsistent with a proper or 
elegant system of intonation, would induce me to belevej the Greeks and 
Komans did always mean stres alone, in their report on the acentual func- 
tion : but had conected with it a crude theory of pitch, formed perhaps out of 
some fragments of Egyptian,- or Eastern science, or conceit^ which Pytha- 
goras, or whoever imported them, did not comprehend. 



A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF RECITATIVE. 633 

tions, without even a distant prospect of usefulnes, I long-ago 
laid it aside, for subjects, which if not contributive to others, 
might at least be instructive and agreeable to myself. Its pur- 
pose was, on the ground of the method of discovery adopted in 
this esay, to propose to the Practical Department of Medicine, the 
means for inquiring into the deep-laid causes of its unprofitable 
theoretic habits ; its sectarian contrarieties ; its perpetual changes 
in opinion and practice ; and its restles, but well-meant endeavors 
in the wrong way, to acomplish something right and needful for 
itself. 

To obtain if posible, a hearing in a Cause so aparently hopeles, 
I laid before the Medical Profesion, the preceding Example of 
philosophic investigation. This was not done with the purpose 
to improve its Elocution; but, from the sucesful result of an 
inquiry into one of its own subjects, to invite a like inquiry into 
some of those versatile fictions, which under the name of knowl- 
edge, have to no purpose, ocupied it so long ; and which have, to 
the plain observation of the world, been the jest of a well-de- 
served but useles satire. In this, however, I have failed. For 
altho it was submited as an original view of the proper Physiol- 
ogy of the voicej yet with a Census of more than forty thousand 
Physicians, in the United States, I do not know, nor have I 
heard-of one, who has so far looked into it, as to have risked his 
Theoretic Life, by catching a single infectious thdt from its adopted 
Baconian method : a method that did hope to recomend itself by 
what it had already done. 

To my inteligent Readers of another class, I may remark, and 
it will perhaps be receved, that widely diferent as the esay they 
have just finished is, in system and in practical character, from 
the Old Elocution ; there might be under the method we have 
adopted, a still greater diference between some New Order of Iledi- 
cine, and the disorderly opinions and practice of any of the count- 
ies Heterogeneous Systems of the day ; systems under which, their 
votaries must still pretend to know more than they do know, and 
afect to perform more than with their jealous contentions among 
themselves, they ever can. Let them change their narow view of 
Causes and Effects, for one of Baconian breadth, in observation 
and reflection : and posibly Truth, who in her purity and plaines 



634 A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF RECITATIVE. 

seems to have always avoided them, may, with but a look of 
philosophic invitation on their part, lose all her shynes, and 
freely aford her restorative asistance in their present theoretic 
extremity. 

Philadelphia, March 20, 1867, 



THE END. 





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